By ABC and COLlive
Jacob Ostreicher is a 53-year-old flooring contractor from Brooklyn, NY. After the construction industry collapsed in the U.S. in 2008, Jacob said he heard from a family friend, a prominent lawyer in Switzerland, about a promising investment opportunity: growing rice in Bolivia.
Ostreicher said he put $200,000, his life savings, into the venture and became a very junior partner in a $25 million project.
But in 2011, Bolivian police arrested one of Ostreicher’s former employees and accused him of being involved with drug criminals. Ostreicher said he cooperated fully with police – and then was arrested himself.
Prosecutors claimed they were investigating whether the $25 million that started the rice business came from drug money.
Ostreicher has spent the past 11 months at Palmasola, a “prison town” in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, which is self-governed by its 3,000 prisoners.
While Bolivian law permits holding a prisoner up to 8 months without trial, the grandfather of 11 grandchildren is accused of money laundering but has still not been charged.
On Monday his wife Miriam met with Congressman Jerrold Nadler to rally support which resulted in a letter sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling on her to take action.
The family opened a website FreeJacobNow.com and are asking the public to sign a petition to President Barack Obama on WhiteHouse.gov
Anyone?
such a rachmonus on him
get a friend!
please take a few minutes.
I already signed and tried getting a lot of my friends to do the same. Please don’t say “its just a waste of time” because it only takes 1 minute of your time so why not possibly save someone’s life.
Very good
Boruch Hashem. I hope she fulfills this request.