A New Jersey millionaire and philanthropist who gained notoriety when questions were raised about the value of a collection of 17th- and 18th-century stringed instruments that he sold to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison on unrelated tax fraud charges.
The philanthropist, Herbert Axelrod, sobbed and expressed his remorse for helping a former executive of his pet supply and pet-related publishing company set up a Swiss bank account to hide taxable income from the Internal Revenue Service.
"It was always my goal to be remembered as an outstanding philanthropist," said Axelrod, 77, standing before Judge Garrett Brown in US District Court. "Instead I will be remembered as someone who disrespected the law and this court."
Last month the former executive, Gary Hersch, pleaded guilty to defrauding the government of taxes on some US$775,000 he secreted in a Swiss bank. The white-bearded Axelrod, who has been held in a Monmouth County jail and who wore an oversized, khaki-colored prison jumpsuit to court, admitted Monday that it was he who introduced Hersch to his Zurich banker in 1983, commencing the fraud.
Axelrod was arrested in June in Germany, where he had fled after hearing of the federal investigation into the tax case. He lived in Deal, New Jersey, for many years, and made his fortune with pet products and publications, founding TFH Publications.
Once called the Medici of the Meadowlands for his patronage of the arts, he was praised just a year earlier for his sale of 30 Stradivarius, Amati and Guaneri violins, violas and cellos to the orchestra. He and some experts had valued the collection at US$50 million, but the symphony was able to buy the collection for US$18 million.
It was seen at the time as a generous gift. However, other appraisals and an investigation by the trustees of the orchestra valued the instruments at between US$15 million and US$26 million at most.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not