JINIF's

Looking For Oil

First

Annual

PURIM
MASQUERADE BALL

Honoring Florine Mark & Dr. William Ross

Spurned investors don't hold
Israel responsible for failed drilling scheme.

ALAN ABRAMS
Special to the Jewish News

A

Huntington Woods lawyer
was charged last week with
embezzling $1.3 million
from local Jewish and
national investors in a scheme to drill
for oil in Israel. The local investors
remain staunch supporters of Israel.
The oil-drilling plan never material-
ized; prosecutors allege the money was
diverted to personal use.
Oakland County prosecutors
charged Barry Yaker, 65, with two
counts of embezzlement over $100.
Each charge is a felony carrying a maxi-
mum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The alleged embezzlement took
place between December 1993 and
February 1994, said. John O'Brien, chief
deputy prosecutor of Oakland County.
Yaker was arrested at his Charlevoix
vacation home and brought to
Birmingham Dec. 27. He was arraigned
before Judge Edward Avadenka in 48th
District Court in Bloomfield Hills and
entered a plea of not guilty. Bond was
set at $75,000; Yaker was released upon
payment of 10 percent of that amount.
A preliminary examination of the
charges is scheduled for Feb. 24. If
Yaker were to be bound over, the case
would be tried in Oakland County
Circuit Court.
His Independent Oil Partners
Limited Partnership was based in
Birmingham. The arrest followed an
18-month investigation by Birmingham
police.
The alleged scheme involved 30-40
investors who put up a minimum of
$9,000 each. According to prosecutor
O'Brien, Yaker told investors he had
found a process for slant -drilling for oil
under bodies of water or other previous-
ly inaccessible sites. Although such
equipment is widely used now, technol-
ogy in the early 1990s had not yet
advanced to that stage. He planned to
drill in Israel.
"Yaker was trading on a certain
amount of feeling that these investors
had for Israel. These were all highly suc-
cessful people," O'Brien said.
Reached by telephone, Yaker said,
"No, there can be no comment, and
declined to talk further.

Local Jewish businessmen contacted
by the Jewish News and who invested in
the plan said the experience has not
soured them on investing in Israel.
"Absolutely not. This is an isolated
incident. It has absolutely nothing to do
with Israel," said Dennis Dembs of
Dembs-Roth Construction.
Individuals in 1992 and 1993 invest-
ed as little as $9,000 and up to $144,000
in the oil-drilling plan, according to
Independent Oil Partners' records.
Norbert Zuckerman, whose private
investment office was adjacent to Yaker's
in Birmingham, and his mother Helen
Zuckerman of Franklin, invested in the
company. Zuckerman said, "Israel did
not have anything to do with this (the
plan's failure). I was encouraged to
become an investor in one sense because
it would help Israel if it were successful.
"It would not discourage me from
investing in Israel again, not even in the
slightest," said Zuckerman.
Bernard Stollman of Biltmore
Properties Corp. in Troy agrees. "This is
a private investment through one indi-
vidual," he said.
Dr. Donald Golden, founder of the
D.O.C. eye centers and an investor
along with his sons Richard and
Randel, also was not soured on Israel.
"No, this will not turn me off from
investing in Israel," he said. "I felt for a
while that this man (Yaker) was less
than honest with us. I'd call him about
once a year because my accountant
wanted to write off the loss. He'd tell
me, 'No, don't do that. It is still alive.'
1-le kept inferring for several years _
that it was going to happen. Eventually,
his telephone was disconnected, and I
assumed the money was lost. This, at
last, brings closure."
Yaker allegedly told investors he
could acquire the necessary equipment
for $650,000. Yet he raised more than
$1.5 million from investors. None of
that money was used for the oil project,
according to O'Brien.
Instead, said O'Brien, Yaker allegedly
"bought a home for himself and used
the money for covering his personal
expenses, including credit card bills and
debts." Published reports said the
money also was allegedly used to pay
his children's tuition bills.
In 1995, West Bloomfield business-

SAVE
DATE

Sunday evening, March 26, 2000

The newly renovated Handelman Hall
at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield

LOCATION:

Chairman: Neal F. Zalenko

Cocktails & strolling dinner by: Matt Prentke

There will be dining, dancing, masks for everyone
and several surprises throughout the evening.

Proceeds from the event will go towards JNF water projects in Israel.

Dietary laws observed.

JNF of Greater Detroit
(248) 557-6644

17100 W. Ten Mile Road
Southfield, MI 48075

vuww.jnf.org

-vo0

JSH
NATIONAL FUND

JNF.
Together,
We Can.

tTN

1/7
2000

