Passover Haggada : Anaheim Man Is Held in Rare-Book Fraud

Gabriel Reguer of Anaheim was arrested Tuesday on charges of selling a forgery of the first printed Passover Haggada, a 400-year-old book on the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt.

Also arrested was Raphael Podde, 45, Reguer’s partner in Pardes Rimonim Press in Woodmere, N.Y.

Both were charged with conspiracy and wire fraud for allegedly trying to defraud collectors of ancient Hebrew books and documents by selling and trying to sell a forgery of what is known as the Guadalaxara Haggada.

Only one genuine Guadalaxara Haggada is known to exist, in Jerusalem at the Jewish National University Library.

The story of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt was handwritten until the invention of the printing press in the late 1400s. Scholars believe the first printed version of the book was published in Guadalaxara, Spain, about 1482.

According to the four-count federal indictment, Reguer, 49, using the alias “Rollie Bland,” sold an entire counterfeit Haggada to two Brooklyn collectors for $60,000 in September, 1986, and tried to sell another Brooklyn collector a second counterfeit copy for $90,000, but the deal fell through.

The indictment also said Podde sold three counterfeited pages of the book to a collector of Hebrew documents for $12,000 in 1986 and sold to the same collector a counterfeited page of another Hebrew book said to be printed about 1490 for $600.

The man who paid $60,000 for the Haggada, Aharon Berger, flew to Israel to compare it with the original because he suspected it was counterfeit. He discovered the forgery and notified the FBI.

After a nine-month investigation, Podde, 45, and Reguer, 49, were arrested at their homes. They are both Italian citizens living in the United States.

Reguer also tried to sell the book to a Manahattan collector for $100,000, but again no with success, the indictment alleged.

The defendants face up to 20 years in prison if convicted and $1 million in fines on each of four counts.

Berger, a collector and seller of rare books, said he became suspicious when another dealer called him and said the book had also been offered to him. After Berger discovered the forgery, he asked for his money back but Reguer refused to listen.

“If he had given me the money back, it wouldn’t have come to this,” Berger said. “I didn’t want them to be arrested, I just wanted my money back.”