Woman pleads guilty in Holocaust fraud

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NEW YORK, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- A New York City woman faces 5 years in prison after admitting stealing part of $57 million intended for poor Holocaust victims, officials said.

Valentina Romashova, 65, of Brooklyn, was one of a group of individuals police said conspired to conjure up fake identities and submit applications to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany -- a fund set up to assist Holocaust victims, the New York Daily News reported.

Workers at the fund were also in on the scheme and got kickbacks for authorizing payments they knew to be fraudulent, police said.

Romashova profited $150,000 personally from the scheme, prosecutors said. Thirty-one people in all have been indicted in the fraud.

Romashova pleaded guilty Wednesday and faces sentencing early next year.