 Originally having established his community in Israel, which he claimed to have modeled after the Satmar Hasidic movement, Helbrans moved his non-Zionist community to the United States, where he was convicted in 1994 for kidnapping, for which he served two years in prison.During this time he was accused by a few former community members of child abuse, serving medicine and psychological pills, and using various punishments on his followers.He was deported back to Israel, but in 2001 he fled to Canada, where he reestablished his community in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec, applying for and attaining refugee status for himself two years later.