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Michael Chetkof, Allyson Burger: STOP THE BLACKMAIL!

August 25, 2017

In Blog News

Michael Chetkof, Allyson Burger: STOP THE BLACKMAIL!

Finkelstein comments:

 

For one year and four months, I sat witness to a man crucified.

 

He was my former student.

 

A quarter century later, he is now a trusted friend.

 

An indigent immigrant from South America, he was a shipping clerk by day while taking my class at night.

 

By dint of innate gifts, hard work and superhuman discipline, he eventually became a pediatrician.

 

But he never forgot where he came from.

 

Each year he set aside several weeks to travel the world voluntarily servicing the poor and destitute, the Wretched of the Earth.

 

He accompanied me to South Africa, where he treated orphan children with AIDS.

 

He accompanied me to the West Bank, where he treated Palestinian children shot by Israeli soldiers.

 

He worked 60-80 hour weeks—yes, 60-80 hours!—in order to save money for his three children.

 

He wanted the best for them; a life free of the hardships he had to endure, as they too, G-d willing, eventually became physicians.

 

He was on the threshold of achieving his life’s goals: to Heal the sick and to Nourish his children.

 

But in April 2016, disaster struck.

 

He stumbled into the clutches of two unscrupulous lawyers named Allyson Burger and Michael Chetkof.

 

They had hovered above eyeing their prey: He’s slight of stature, he’s dark-skinned, he’s half Muslim, his English isn’t perfect.

 

They then swooped in for the kill.

 

They concocted the Big Lie that he had committed “countless” acts of “unspeakable violence.”

 

The evidence?

 

None.

 

No photographic or other physical evidence, no police records, no medical records, no eyewitness affidavits.

 

Literally nothing.

 

He was beside himself with fear and grief.

 

It broke my heart.

 

I promised not to abandon him.

 

How could I desert a friend, a veritable Saint, in his hour of need?

 

Day after day, I sat with him and his lawyers.

 

Day after day, I traveled with him to Court.

 

Night after night, I perused the Court record.

 

But I was helpless in the face of the unfolding crime.

 

The duo of licensed Vultures kept trying to dig up dirt on him.

 

They intimidated him, they browbeat him, they badgered him, they taunted him, they humiliated, degraded and demeaned him.

 

Relentlessly, mercilessly, they tore at his flesh.

 

On Friday, August 4, he succumbed.

 

“I can’t go on,” he whispered, in a wan smile of defeat.

 

He lost his home and his life’s savings.

 

That night, he called me, hysterically sobbing, shattered.

 

I made a solemn promise to him: this horror will not be forgiven or forgotten.

 

The truth shall be told and the perpetrators shall be punished.

 

Come what may, I will reveal to the world how he was crucified.

 

Were you there when they crucified My Lord?  Tremble, tremble, tremble.

 

Now the Vultures are blackmailing him in order to silence me.

 

They sent a letter stating

 

“If your friend continues down the path he is going, Pandora’s box will open and the overflow of the Court Record will not be beneficial to [Dr. . . .] Personally and Professionally” (see below).

 

If you are as appalled as I am by these blackmail tactics, I urge you to contact Allyson Burger and Michael Chetkof and tell them to STOP THE BLACKMAIL!

You can reach them here:

Saltzman Chetkof and Rosenberg LLP

516-873-7200

mchetkof@scrllp.com

adburger@scrllp.com

[The Blackmail Letter was addressed to the victim’s lawyers, both of whom were old friends of mine.  I have blotted out the names of the innocent and less-guilty parties.]

Blackmail Letter1

Blackmail Letter2