Some investigation and speculation on the current scandal

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A Guest Post by Special Correspondent Kermit T. Frog.

Hi Ho! Kermit T. Frog here with a Fast Breaking News Story.

Absolute facts:

-- In 2006 Leib Tropper revoked a woman's conversion because of a breach of strict halachic tznius rules.
-- In October 2009 Leib Tropper was sued by a billionaire Israeli for allegedly misappropriating 1 million dollars.
-- In mid-December 2009 Leib Tropper resigned from his leadership role at EJF
-- Pashkvelin in Israel, this month,  denounced Leib Tropper as a Zimri playing like a Pinchas.

Facts Supported by strong circumstantial evidence:

-- A woman who identifies herself as Shannon Orand, recorded a number of conversations between herself and  a man who sounds like Leib Tropper and has intimate information about Leib Tropper's associates and family.
-- In the audio recording, Tropper speaks of a sexual relationship with the woman as well as setting her up for phone sex and actual sex acts with men identified only as "Amir" and the "Satmar guy."
-- Money is passing hands, although it is not clear if the funds were used as a quid pro quo for sex.

Information provided by Shmarya at FailedMessiah after a conversation with the woman (whom he does not identify):

-- The audio was leaked and was not supposed to end up in the hands of bloggers and mainstream media.
-- One of Shmarya's sources for the audio was the billionaire Israeli.
-- There were other women that were part of the sexual activities.
-- The woman claims that Tropper was using her for sex and in return he was going to provide her with a conversion.

Investigative Reporting:

-- The woman on the audio is from Texas. There is a Shannon Orand listed in Houston Texas. Her address is near the frum neighborhood.
-- Ms. Orand claims on her Myspace page that she was raised Catholic and is now Jewish. This implies she has already converted.
-- Ms. Orand has not logged into her Myspace account since August 2009.
-- Ms. Orand had a Facebook account (which is still visible in google results if you click "cached") it has been since deleted.

Pure Speculation / Food For Thought:

-- If Ms. Orand had already converted why was she converting again? Was it a set-up? Or was she really converting (again)?
-- A man with the means of the slighted billionaire Israeli could very well have orchestrated the demise of his nemesis by playing to Tropper's weaknesses with an elaborate set-up.
-- By recording conversations in which the woman admits to sexual activity with a married man and potential sexual activity with others, we can infer that there was a huge interest on her part to expose Tropper and indict herself.
-- The things Tropper did would still be inexcusable but they shed new light on his predicament.
-- Don't mess with billionaires.

Sources:

Wikipedia, Google, Whitepages.com, FailedMessiah, my sechel and sparse free time.

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