http://www.dnainfo.com/20110304/midtown/midtown-jewelers-convicted-of-staging-bizarre-hassid-robbery Midtown Jewelers Convicted of Staging Robbery by Faux Hasidic Jews
March 4, 2011 1:54pm2commentsshareprint
Atul Shah and Mahaveer Kankariya face 15 years for hiring men to dress up as Hasidic Jews and pretend to rob them.
Two Jewelers
Atul Shah, left, with lawyer Benjamin Brafman. His business partner, Mahaveer Kankariya, is at the right with his attorney Michael Bachner. (DNAinfo/John Marshall Mantel)
By Shayna Jacobs and Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Two Midtown jewelers accused of staging a fake robbery that involved faux Hasidic thieves were found guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday.
Atul Shah, 49, and Mahaveer Kankariya, 44, face up to 15 years in prison for hiring men to dress as Hasidic Jews and pretend to rob them so that they could collect on a $7 million insurance claim.
The staged heist occurred on New Years Eve 2008. (NYPD)
The decision was handed down by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber after a three week bench trial which centered around security footage taken from the pair's West 46th Street store, called Dialite Imports.
The videos appear to show Shah and Kankariya emptying their safe and replacing it with empty boxes just hours before they were supposedly robbed.
Prosecutors accused the defendants of attempting to destroy the DVR machine receiving the feed by dousing it in industrial strength drain cleaner. Though the machine was eventually destroyed, it survived long enough to catch them in the act.
The men who dressed up as Hasidic robbers, donning apparently fake beards and top hats, were never arrested.
Links
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Video Shows Jewelers Emptying Safe Before Fake Robbery, DA Says
Atul Shah and Mahaveer Kankariya are on trial for insurance fraud and attempted grand larceny.
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