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Woman pleads guilty in Holocaust fraud

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.

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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.

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