Anaheim Man, In-Law Plead Guilty to Sale of Fake Copies of Rare Text

An Anaheim man and his brother-in-law pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit copies of a priceless Jewish text to a couple of Brooklyn collectors, court records showed Friday.

The two men, Gabriel Reguer, 49, of Anaheim and his brother-in-law, Raphael Podde, 45, of Woodmere, N.Y., pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn to selling fake copies of the Guadalajara Haggada. The surprise pleas came just after the prosecutor made opening statements in the case.

The Haggada tells the story of the Exodus and is read during Passover.

Only one copy of the Guadalajara Haggada is known to exist, according to scholars, and it is at Israel’s Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem.

A second copy would be worth “millions,” according to Dena Abramowitz, research librarian for Yivo, the institute for Jewish Research in New York.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Jonny Frank said Podde, who was a former abbot in Italy before converting to Judaism, was the counterfeiter. Reguer sold the counterfeit prayer text.

“It is unusual to have someone plead guilty right after the opening argument,” Frank said. “But I guess they saw the evidence against them and realized we had them cold.”

Podde confessed to telling Brooklyn collectors Dov Berlin and Aharon Berger that he “knew of someone in California” who had a copy of the rare book and put them in touch with Reguer, who used the alias “Rollie Bland.”

Reguer purposely dressed so as not to look like an Orthodox Jew and therefore appear naive, according to Frank. “He wanted them to think he had something he didn’t want. Like he didn’t know what he had.”

Berlin and Berger paid Reguer $60,000 for the fake. They became suspicious and contacted federal officials only after a friend told them that he too had been offered a similar prayer book.

Podde pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.

Reguer pleaded guilty to one count of currency violation and faces up to 5 years in jail and a $250,000 fine.

Both men, who are free on bail, will be sentenced Aug. 12.