With increased evidence of fraud being perpetrated on kosher consumers, the need for government protection is clear, say advocates of tougher laws on kosher.
Last week, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office reached an agreement with Golbos, Inc., which operates the Gordon and Alperin Butcher Shop, and its principal, Ricardo Bosich, resolving allegations that they violated the Massachusetts Kosher Food Law by posting signage in Hebrew advertising “Kosher Meat” when the Newton shop was no longer certified as kosher. The Attorney General alleged that the shop had also continued to advertise on its website that it was under kosher supervision when it had discontinued such supervision.
While some might consider the $1,000 civil penalty as a slap on the wrist, it does however send a message to settle these allegations, according to Rabbi Rachmiel Liberman, Executive Director of “Diamond-K” Kosher Supervision (Lubavitch) and sponsor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Kosher Law Statue. According to Liberman, “This is a matter of consumer protection, for close to a year consumers were misled by this proprietor into believing that his butcher shop had rabbinical supervision.”
Rabbi Liberman thanked Assistant Attorney General David Monahan for settling this case in which Gordon & Alperin Butcher shop agreed to pay the $1000 fine. Growing incidents of kosher fraud was also a topic at the recent conference of the Association of Kashrus Organizations (AKO) in New York.
{Kosher Today/Matzav.com Newscenter}
$1000 is nothing. They probably made more than that off of vulnerable consumers.
Maybe it was less because they just claimed to be kosher instead of claiming to be under a specific organization’s supervision. I’m sure OU gets more of a settlement when companies falsely use their symbol.
The first case would (only) be false advertising while the second would be copyright infringement.
I’m not a lawyer, so this is guesswork. Can someone who knows more shed some light?
From the moment they dropped their kosher supervision, Gordon & Alperin always made it clear that the meat was not supervised. In fact, a prominent sign on the door of the shop notified customers on their way in.
No fraud occurred.
Besides, as of Sept 2009, store is back under very reliable certification, with the approval of the area’s leading rabbis.
The sign that you mentioned was only up for a couple of weeks at the beginning. It was only after the Attorney General filed a Case in Court that they obtained Kosher supervision. If there was no fraud the Attorney General would not have pursued the case.