Grant de Graf is the Special Officer for Combating Antisemitism for Save Vilna.
Statement by Andrius Kulikauskas.
Grant de Graf is not fit to have a leadership role at Save Vilna. Their recent proposal (February 22, 2022) includes an interview with him.
If you care about the future of the Vilnius Cemetery, please contact Dovid Katz of Defending History. Here is an article that I wrote about the activity of local Jews and Lithuanians. Lithuania Hears Pleas and (For Now?) Cancels Funding for Convention Center Project in Old Jewish Cemetery. And here are more of my articles.
Grant de Graf
Grant de Graf is the name taken up by Grant Ivan Grieve who was fined 26 million dollars in 2013 by the Securites and Exchange Commission. He has been running the website SaveVilna.org which is rife with "fake news".
He's currently a film maker and social media enthusiast whose full time job since February 2020 has been working for SaveVilna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantdegraf/ He has 500+ connections and follows 4,000+ people. He's currently listed in New York. His telephone number is: +1 (212)
On Twitter he has trademarked his name! https://twitter.com/grantdegraf and he follows 13,000+ people!
He's originally from Johannesburg. Here's part of his biography: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5226054/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
He seems to have recently been working from Jaffa 13, Jerusalem: https://www.janglo.net/item/260d5287308
Apparently, he's being assisted by lawer Kenneth E. Pinczower in New York, to whom he addressed the letter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenneth-pinczower-88baa377/
I checked my emails and I see that Rabbi Baron lists the email corporatexfactor@gmail.com as belonging to Gad Grieve. Well, Gad Grieve has a rather similar biography with additional details. His name was Grant Ivan Grieve: https://www.sec.gov/litigation/admin/2010/ia-3061.pdf According to the SEC: Grieve, through FAM, fabricated and disseminated false financial information for the Primer Fund that was “certified” by a sham back-office administrator and phony auditing firm that Grieve himself created. Also, Grieve, through FAM and FFM, provided current and prospective investors in the Primer and Yankee Funds with false monthly account statements, newsletters, and fact sheets that materially overstated the funds’ performance and assets. Additionally, beginning in 2008, Grieve engaged in similar conduct overseas, including luring new investors and/or placating existing investors with counterfeit documents. Grieve, FAM, and FFM attracted more than $50 million in investments between the two funds. Conclusion: Grieve has been permanently enjoined “from engaging in or continuing any conduct or practice in connection . . . with the purchase or sale of any security
He and his firm had to pay 26 million dollars in disgorgement and penalties: Litigation Release No.22696. May 3, 2013.
February 11, 2009. Courthouse News Service. Hedge Fund Crook Moved Overseas, SEC Says.
He had to sell his New York townhouse for 12 million dollars: https://www.gawker.com/tag/gad-grieve
Here, I believe, are articles that he wrote about himself to explain that he did nothing wrong: http://washingtonreview.blogspot.com/search/label/Gad%20Grieve Although it says "Washington Review" it's really just any old blog on blogspot.com http://washingtonreview.blogspot.com/ Apparently, he was just part of the "mass exit of hedge fund managers from the sector." I like this thought: "The inauguration of a new President in that of Donald Tump has led to a new mindset, which is not so hamstrung by the Madoff debacle, and the need to make a point or rectify previous failings."
His 1995 wedding made the Style section of the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/09/style/weddings-elizabeth-tamerin-and-gad-grieve.html He is the son of the late Carole and Zissel Grieve. "Mr. Grieve, 35, is a rabbinical candidate at Marbeh Torah Yeshiva in Bnei Braq, Israel. He graduated from the University of Cape Town."
Their marriage ended in 1997. Here is presumably part of his custody battle for his son, not relevant, but just for completeness: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/269/149/532876/
He's also an author. Grant de Graf is his penname: https://www.amazon.com/Grant-de-Graf/e/B004KEXY6O%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share "João de Aviz, the infante, leads the battle of the downtrodden against the experienced and wealthy prosecutor, Don Antonio Esteves. When João is forced to flee the palace with the woman that he loves, the daughter of his most bitter opponent, Ines Peres Esteves, matters intensify." There's a photo of him.
Here's his blog: http://grantdegraf.blogspot.com
His Youtube channel with some clips where he speaks: https://www.youtube.com/c/GrantdeGraf
What is wrong with Save Vilna?
Here is a section of my article that Defending History published.
Making Public the Diverging Values of Kapines.com and SaveVilna.org
The two long articles by Arvydas Jockus of Alfa.lt are tolerable examples of objective reporting. They have us consider our values as we face the challenge of penetrating the fortress of deceptions erected by the Lithuanian government, Turto Bankas, the Lithuanian Jewish Community and unknown economic interests.
The anonymous founders of SaveVilna.org are investing thousands of dollars in presenting important facts in inappropriately suspect forms. They are plastering the internet with press releases from fictional authors (Jonathan Braun) belonging to fictional organizations (such as Human Rights Court Watch), or even falsely assuming the identity of real authors (Pieter Muller) and real organizations (hrw.org), as here and here. Then they are citing their own press releases as if they were independent sources. Dag, the media contact person for SaveVilna.org, provided me his explanation on July 20, 2020. He declined to give his last name.
The above mentioned press release presented an esteemed rabbinical court as if it were an “Israeli court”. The press releases are ungrammatical (written by an Israeli?) and always include the most preposterous email address: reviews4hotspots @ gmail.com. A whole network of fake people have been set up on Twitter (Vilnius Patron, Very Fast Lane), Facebook, Quora (Jonus Norkus — the actual Lithuanian forename is Jonas) to recommend these press releases, at times using extreme language, such as the video “Jewish killing fields in Lithuania under the spotlight”, which is then understood by some to be part of the very real Russian information war on Lithuania, the US, the UK and other countries. I personally received a tweet from Very Fast Lane: “You’re the ostrich everyone is talking about. Where exactly is the fake news? Pull your head out the sand and open your eyes big boy.” This is demoralizing.
As the editor of Kapines.com (“Gerbkime kapines” — “Respect Cemeteries”), after repeatedly addressing my concerns in private, I am ever more publicly condemning this immoral approach to a moral problem. As this problem grows, it destroys the credibility of diaspora Litvaks, especially rabbis amongst them, who tolerate or condone this. We would hope to lean on their authority, but we mustn’t if they are rotten wood.
We don’t need to be fighting an information war alongside or against imaginary, cocky, amoral, anonymous, mercenary Israelis.
We simply need pious Jews who will pray for and at the Cemetery. Here in Lithuania so far there is only one such woman, Ruta Bloshtein, and not a single man. Who will pray with her?