Exec ignores judge’s order for records in bankruptcy case tinged with Catholic animosity [Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.]

Dec. 20--A Minneapolis business executive has ignored a judge's order to turn over records connected with her company's bankruptcy, a federal trustee said Monday.

The trustee said that not only had Naomi Isaacson, president of Yehud-Monosson USA Inc., failed to meet a Friday deadline to provide the records, but the requests were "returned to my office with the words 'RETURN TO SENDER' handwritten on the front."

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher already has found Isaacson, 37, in contempt for failing to turn the records over to court-appointed trustee Nauni Manty. The judge has scheduled a Jan. 4 hearing on the contempt order, and she'll also decide at next month's hearing whether Isaacson and her lawyer will be fined up to $10,000 each for filing a legal brief filled with religious slurs.

Isaacson, who is also a lawyer, has been under court order since Oct. 7 to provide the business records to Manty's office. In court filings, Isaacson and her company's lawyer, Rebekah Nett, of Hastings, have accused Dreher, Manty and others of being involved in a conspiracy rooted in the Catholic Church.

Among other names, Isaacson wrote in court filings that Dreher -- who is not Catholic -- is "a secret Catholic Knight Witch Hunter."

Isaacson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Manty's affidavit, filed Monday afternoon.

Yehud-Monosson USA owned a number of gas stations and convenience stores, including a Mobil at Grand and Smith avenues in St. Paul. The

company is a subsidiary of the Dr. R.C. Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology, Inc., and Isaacson is that group's chief executive officer and in-house counsel.

The institute, for many years based in Shawano, Wis., is headed by a man who now goes by the name Avraham Cohen. Some former members have said Cohen's group is a religious cult, a claim Isaacson and others have denied.

Earlier this year, Yehud-Monosson USA filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which would have protected it from creditors' lawsuits and would have given it control of its assets while reorganizing.

But the U.S. Justice Department accused the company of acting in bad faith and abusing the bankruptcy system. As a result, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis O'Brien (who later recused himself from the case) converted the case to Chapter 7, which placed Yehud-Monosson USA under the control of Manty, who later sought liquidation of the company's assets.

Isaacson had been ordered to turn over all of her company's records to Manty. Nett provided some but didn't turn over copies of any company insurance policies, any promissory notes between the company and Cohen, as well as Cohen's present address.

Isaacson refused repeated court orders to provide the information. In an affidavit last month, she referred to Manty's filings as being "based upon fabrication and lies."

She also said she wasn't giving the trustee Cohen's address.

"With respect to Dr. Cohen's address, I am not her clerk or secretary," Isaacson wrote of Manty. "She has staff that can obtain Dr. Cohen's address rather than asking me to do her dirty job."

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.

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