BREAKING NEWS
press conference coming today at 11am
I just stumbled across this after seeing G4A's breaking...
2 NJ mayors, lawmaker arrested in corruption case
Feds arrest state lawmaker, mayors of 2 NJ cities, rabbis in corruption probe
Staff
AP News
Jul 23, 2009 08:28 EST
The mayors of two New Jersey cities and a state legislator are under arrest Thursday as part of a major corruption and international money laundering conspiracy probe.
Federal prosecutors say about 30 people have been arrested in the two-track investigation. They include Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III and Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell. Federal prosecutors say several rabbis in New York and New Jersey are also arrested.
A news conference is scheduled for noon at the U.S. attorney's office in Newark.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who has fought corruption in New Jersey' largest city, says it's "an unbelievable morning so far."
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009...ase.php?ref=fpb
QUOTE(Magmak1 @ Jul 23 2009, 06:53 AM) 
Feds arrest state lawmaker, mayors of 2 NJ cities, rabbis in corruption probe
Staff
AP News
Staff
AP News
Who are the Rabbis, and what is their role in this?
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Jul 23 2009, 01:16 PM)
QUOTE(Magmak1 @ Jul 23 2009, 06:53 AM)
Feds arrest state lawmaker, mayors of 2 NJ cities, rabbis in corruption probe
Staff
AP News
Staff
AP News
Who are the Rabbis, and what is their role in this?
Despite the use of the word, I saw no information about any rabbis. Perhaps G4A, who apparently watched the press conference, has more... The Reuters dispatch used the word, but had no details. The WSJ article via Google News says "The subjects of the arrests also include religious leaders from the Syrian Jewish enclaves in Brooklyn, N.Y., and in Deal and Elberon, in New Jersey's Monmouth County, the Asbury Park Press reported." but also had no further detail. That article also has, at the end, this invitation: "Write to Suzanne Sataline at suzanne.sataline@wsj.com "
I'm reading this story now as well.
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Jul 23 2009, 11:16 AM)
QUOTE(Magmak1 @ Jul 23 2009, 06:53 AM)
Feds arrest state lawmaker, mayors of 2 NJ cities, rabbis in corruption probe
Staff
AP News
Staff
AP News
Who are the Rabbis, and what is their role in this?
was watching the local network channel 11 morning show this morning and the story and headlines I got were from their report.
I do not know the details yet.
But Rabbi's were in their report, right at the end of the show around 845-9am(show ends at 9, and then 2 hours of Maury Povich comes on).I turn it off at 9.
Here is a link to the Star Ledger's website where you can actually read the complaints...filed against some of the main people...
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/n...ts_ensnare.html
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/n...ts_ensnare.html
QUOTE(tazvil04 @ Jul 23 2009, 11:48 AM)
Here is a link to the Star Ledger's website where you can actually read the complaints...filed against some of the main people...
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/n...ts_ensnare.html
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/n...ts_ensnare.html
the ledger slants this article, saying "all democrats" however, some of those listed later on (when people don't read entire articles) are republicans
but the ledger is always right wing
other jersey papers are either middle and there actually is one that is to the left.
of course, in major scandals and stings, one always wonders whether say republicans were warned in advance to stay away(inside info).
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=agHjKddhC2TE
Mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus, Several Rabbis Arrested (Update4)
By David Voreacos
July 23 (Bloomberg) -- The mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus, New Jersey, and several rabbis are among at least 30 people arrested today as part of a public corruption and money-laundering investigation by U.S. authorities.
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, 32, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, 64, Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, 42, all Democrats, Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega Jr., 59, and State Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, 44, a Republican from Ocean Township, were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They are scheduled to appear in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, later today.
“Approximately 30 arrests have occurred this morning in a two-track federal investigation of public corruption and a high- volume, international money-laundering conspiracy,” Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, said in a statement.
The roundup of suspects is one of the largest ever in New Jersey, where more than 100 public officials have been convicted of corruption in the past few years. Prosecutors worked with an undercover witness who had been charged with bank fraud in May 2006, according to FBI criminal complaints.
Cammarano, Hoboken’s youngest mayor, was sworn in July 1. Former state Assemblyman Louis Manzo, 54, a Democrat from Jersey City, Leona Beldini, a deputy mayor of Jersey City, and several rabbis in New York and New Jersey were among those arrested.
Rabbis Named
The rabbis included Saul Kassin, 87, chief rabbi of Sharee Zion, a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York; Eliahu Ben Haim, 58, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, New Jersey; Edmond Nahum, 56, of Deal Synagogue in Deal; Mordchai Fish, 56, of Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn; and Lavel Schwartz, 57, Fish’s brother. They were charged with money laundering.
Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, 58, of Brooklyn was accused of conspiring with others to acquire and trade human organs for use in transplantation. Rosenbaum, who was “purportedly” involved in real estate, was approached by a cooperating witness and an undercover FBI agent about buying a human kidney from a human organ broker, according to the complaint.
Rosenbaum said it would cost $150,000, with half payable up front, according to the complaint. Rosenbaum said some of the money would go to the donor and some to doctors in Israel, according to the complaint.
‘It’s Illegal’
“One of the reasons it’s so expensive is because you have to shmear (meaning pay various individuals for their assistance) all the time,” according to the complaint. “It’s illegal to buy. It’s illegal to sell.”
Prosecutors charged the men in a series of criminal complaints detailing the allegations. Ben Haim was accused of laundering $1.5 million through the undercover witness, who said he “was engaged in illegal businesses and schemes including bank fraud, trafficking in counterfeit goods and concealing assets and monies in connection with bankruptcy proceedings,” according to an FBI criminal complaint.
The cooperating witness is Solomon Dwek, a real estate developer in Monmouth County, New Jersey, who was charged May 11, 2006, with scheming to defraud PNC Bank out of $50 million, according to a person familiar with the matter and court records.
Prosecutors alleged that Dwek deposited two $25 million checks from another account of his, which had a zero balance. Dwek then wired $22.8 million out of PNC, falsely assuring bank officials that he would forward funds to cover the overdraft, according to prosecutors.
Dwek posted a $10 million bond, secured by $3 million in equity in the homes of his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Dwek was never indicted, instead receiving 17 extensions from a judge to continue the period in which his case had to be presented to a federal grand jury.
Agents today brought the suspects to FBI headquarters in Newark for processing before their appearance later today in federal court a mile away. About a dozen of the suspects were transported this morning from the FBI building in a blue bus.
A press conference is scheduled for this afternoon.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey, at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 23, 2009 11:54 EDT
Mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus, Several Rabbis Arrested (Update4)
By David Voreacos
July 23 (Bloomberg) -- The mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus, New Jersey, and several rabbis are among at least 30 people arrested today as part of a public corruption and money-laundering investigation by U.S. authorities.
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, 32, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, 64, Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, 42, all Democrats, Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega Jr., 59, and State Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, 44, a Republican from Ocean Township, were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They are scheduled to appear in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, later today.
“Approximately 30 arrests have occurred this morning in a two-track federal investigation of public corruption and a high- volume, international money-laundering conspiracy,” Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra, said in a statement.
The roundup of suspects is one of the largest ever in New Jersey, where more than 100 public officials have been convicted of corruption in the past few years. Prosecutors worked with an undercover witness who had been charged with bank fraud in May 2006, according to FBI criminal complaints.
Cammarano, Hoboken’s youngest mayor, was sworn in July 1. Former state Assemblyman Louis Manzo, 54, a Democrat from Jersey City, Leona Beldini, a deputy mayor of Jersey City, and several rabbis in New York and New Jersey were among those arrested.
Rabbis Named
The rabbis included Saul Kassin, 87, chief rabbi of Sharee Zion, a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York; Eliahu Ben Haim, 58, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, New Jersey; Edmond Nahum, 56, of Deal Synagogue in Deal; Mordchai Fish, 56, of Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn; and Lavel Schwartz, 57, Fish’s brother. They were charged with money laundering.
Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, 58, of Brooklyn was accused of conspiring with others to acquire and trade human organs for use in transplantation. Rosenbaum, who was “purportedly” involved in real estate, was approached by a cooperating witness and an undercover FBI agent about buying a human kidney from a human organ broker, according to the complaint.
Rosenbaum said it would cost $150,000, with half payable up front, according to the complaint. Rosenbaum said some of the money would go to the donor and some to doctors in Israel, according to the complaint.
‘It’s Illegal’
“One of the reasons it’s so expensive is because you have to shmear (meaning pay various individuals for their assistance) all the time,” according to the complaint. “It’s illegal to buy. It’s illegal to sell.”
Prosecutors charged the men in a series of criminal complaints detailing the allegations. Ben Haim was accused of laundering $1.5 million through the undercover witness, who said he “was engaged in illegal businesses and schemes including bank fraud, trafficking in counterfeit goods and concealing assets and monies in connection with bankruptcy proceedings,” according to an FBI criminal complaint.
The cooperating witness is Solomon Dwek, a real estate developer in Monmouth County, New Jersey, who was charged May 11, 2006, with scheming to defraud PNC Bank out of $50 million, according to a person familiar with the matter and court records.
Prosecutors alleged that Dwek deposited two $25 million checks from another account of his, which had a zero balance. Dwek then wired $22.8 million out of PNC, falsely assuring bank officials that he would forward funds to cover the overdraft, according to prosecutors.
Dwek posted a $10 million bond, secured by $3 million in equity in the homes of his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Dwek was never indicted, instead receiving 17 extensions from a judge to continue the period in which his case had to be presented to a federal grand jury.
Agents today brought the suspects to FBI headquarters in Newark for processing before their appearance later today in federal court a mile away. About a dozen of the suspects were transported this morning from the FBI building in a blue bus.
A press conference is scheduled for this afternoon.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey, at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 23, 2009 11:54 EDT
back near a tv, they are live now
this is an ongoing corruption investigation going back 10 years, and going forward
Was called "Bid Rig"
has named many republicans in the past
this is an ongoing corruption investigation going back 10 years, and going forward
Was called "Bid Rig"
has named many republicans in the past
QUOTE
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/nyregion/24dwek.html?_r=1
Millionaire, Patron and Now Informant
Thomas P. Costello/Asbury Park Press, via Associated Press
Solomon Dwek, right, and his lawyer, Michael B. Himmel, after Mr. Dwek posted bail in a bank fraud case in May 2006.
By KAREEM FAHIM
Published: July 23, 2009
Among the Syrian Jews of Deal, N.J., the legend of Solomon Dwek starts with a fable. When he was a student at a yeshiva, the head of the school told young Solomon — or Shlomo, as he is known — that he would become either a millionaire or a leader of a yeshiva.
He would, in a way, eventually become both. By 2006, when he was in his early 30s, Mr. Dwek was the vice president of the Deal Yeshiva, founded by his father, and a multimillionaire real estate mogul known for his philanthropy.
But his accomplishments were short-lived. In May 2006, Mr. Dwek, who owned hundreds of properties, was arrested after he deposited two $25 million checks and immediately withdrew $22 million. One check bounced, and the bank refused to accept the second deposit. In the months that followed, he was forced into bankruptcy as angry creditors lodged claims against him totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. He was also charged with bank fraud.
If some people in Deal were able to look past those financial sins — because of his largess, or because he had not been convicted in the 2006 case — his role in the charges against 44 people announced on Thursday, including rabbis who were important in the Syrian Jewish community, was seen by many of them as a betrayal.
As a confidential informant working for federal investigators in the wide-ranging public corruption and money laundering investigation, Mr. Dwek helped secure charges against politicians and rabbis from New Jersey and Brooklyn, including a relative by marriage: Rabbi Eliahu Ben Haim of the Ohel Yaacob Congregation in Deal, who is among those accused of money laundering. Rabbi Ben Haim's daughter is married to one of Mr. Dwek's brothers, according to someone who said he knows the family.
The arrests seemed to be the focus of every conversation in Deal on Thursday. Some people defended the rabbis who were arrested; others spoke of broken trust. "They don't know what to believe," said one resident, one of many who refused to give their names.
It was the second time in three years that Mr. Dwek, 36, and the father of five, had focused attention on the insular community of Syrian Jews in Deal. The details of Mr. Dwek's financial dealings are perhaps as colorful and bizarre as his latest role as government informant.
When he deposited one of the $25 million checks, for example, it was at the drive-up window of a PNC bank.
And joining the long list of creditors who filed claims against Mr. Dwek — a group that included jewelers, investment firms and architects — was Mr. Dwek's uncle Joseph Dwek. He accused his nephew of claiming ownership of more than $60 million worth of properties that the uncle said he paid for and had directed Solomon Dwek to buy.
Court papers in a civil suit filed against Solomon Dwek provide other glimpses into his dealings. In a letter from April 2006, Mr. Dwek confirmed that he had received a $200,000 investment from Albert Shammah and promised a net return of $240,000 within five months. But eight months later, Mr. Shammah said in a filing, Mr. Dwek had "failed to repay any part of the investment and profit."
Mr. Dwek's lawyer did not return several calls seeking comment.
Yet even as Mr. Dwek was accused of stealing or mismanaging millions of dollars, he was apparently giving away plenty. One beneficiary was the Lumia Theater in Long Branch, home of the New Jersey Repertory Company, which once included the 50-seat Pearl and Solomon Dwek Little Theater, named for Mr. Dwek and his wife.
He helped his sister start a yeshiva, and he aided families and students who could not pay their bills. "Before his empire came tumbling down," said the person who said he knows the family, "he was giving more and more of it away."
Millionaire, Patron and Now Informant
Thomas P. Costello/Asbury Park Press, via Associated Press
Solomon Dwek, right, and his lawyer, Michael B. Himmel, after Mr. Dwek posted bail in a bank fraud case in May 2006.
By KAREEM FAHIM
Published: July 23, 2009
Among the Syrian Jews of Deal, N.J., the legend of Solomon Dwek starts with a fable. When he was a student at a yeshiva, the head of the school told young Solomon — or Shlomo, as he is known — that he would become either a millionaire or a leader of a yeshiva.
He would, in a way, eventually become both. By 2006, when he was in his early 30s, Mr. Dwek was the vice president of the Deal Yeshiva, founded by his father, and a multimillionaire real estate mogul known for his philanthropy.
But his accomplishments were short-lived. In May 2006, Mr. Dwek, who owned hundreds of properties, was arrested after he deposited two $25 million checks and immediately withdrew $22 million. One check bounced, and the bank refused to accept the second deposit. In the months that followed, he was forced into bankruptcy as angry creditors lodged claims against him totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. He was also charged with bank fraud.
If some people in Deal were able to look past those financial sins — because of his largess, or because he had not been convicted in the 2006 case — his role in the charges against 44 people announced on Thursday, including rabbis who were important in the Syrian Jewish community, was seen by many of them as a betrayal.
As a confidential informant working for federal investigators in the wide-ranging public corruption and money laundering investigation, Mr. Dwek helped secure charges against politicians and rabbis from New Jersey and Brooklyn, including a relative by marriage: Rabbi Eliahu Ben Haim of the Ohel Yaacob Congregation in Deal, who is among those accused of money laundering. Rabbi Ben Haim's daughter is married to one of Mr. Dwek's brothers, according to someone who said he knows the family.
The arrests seemed to be the focus of every conversation in Deal on Thursday. Some people defended the rabbis who were arrested; others spoke of broken trust. "They don't know what to believe," said one resident, one of many who refused to give their names.
It was the second time in three years that Mr. Dwek, 36, and the father of five, had focused attention on the insular community of Syrian Jews in Deal. The details of Mr. Dwek's financial dealings are perhaps as colorful and bizarre as his latest role as government informant.
When he deposited one of the $25 million checks, for example, it was at the drive-up window of a PNC bank.
And joining the long list of creditors who filed claims against Mr. Dwek — a group that included jewelers, investment firms and architects — was Mr. Dwek's uncle Joseph Dwek. He accused his nephew of claiming ownership of more than $60 million worth of properties that the uncle said he paid for and had directed Solomon Dwek to buy.
Court papers in a civil suit filed against Solomon Dwek provide other glimpses into his dealings. In a letter from April 2006, Mr. Dwek confirmed that he had received a $200,000 investment from Albert Shammah and promised a net return of $240,000 within five months. But eight months later, Mr. Shammah said in a filing, Mr. Dwek had "failed to repay any part of the investment and profit."
Mr. Dwek's lawyer did not return several calls seeking comment.
Yet even as Mr. Dwek was accused of stealing or mismanaging millions of dollars, he was apparently giving away plenty. One beneficiary was the Lumia Theater in Long Branch, home of the New Jersey Repertory Company, which once included the 50-seat Pearl and Solomon Dwek Little Theater, named for Mr. Dwek and his wife.
He helped his sister start a yeshiva, and he aided families and students who could not pay their bills. "Before his empire came tumbling down," said the person who said he knows the family, "he was giving more and more of it away."
QUOTE
http://www.pamil-visions.net/rabbi-saul-ka...plicated/23221/
Rabbi Saul Kassin Implicated In Money Laundering Scheme, Syrian Sephardic Community Shaken
By Phil Butler
July 25, 2009
In these tough times, when faith is often all some people have, the last thing anyone needs is a hint of impropriety from religious leaders. In the news from the New York Times today, Rabbi Saul Kassin and 4 other Syrian Sephardic Jewish Rabbis, have been implicated in an FBI money laundering case. According to the news, Rabbi Kassin, 87, along with the other Rabbis, used their congregations' charitable contributions to launder over $3 million in what turned out to be FBI sting money. The Rabbi of the New Jersey Shaare Zion Synagogue in Brooklyn, is considered the leading Sephardic cleric in the US.
The Sephardic Jewish community is in obvious shock over the allegations that perhaps their most respected Rabbi had anything to do with anything illegal, let alone using their charity for monetary gain. Syrian Sephardic Jews number roughly 75,000 in the Brooklyn area, and Rabbi Kassin leads roughly 50 synagogues nation wide. His father, Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin, founded the Shaare Zion. The Sephardic community traces its roots to Spain, North Africa and the Middle East. The US community is primarily comprised of families who immigrated to the US because of anti-Jewish attacks in Syria after the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. David Greenfield, Vice President of the Sephardic Community Federation, had this to say about the unbelievable events:
The FBI's case is built upon what looks like a sting operation in which an informant, Solomon Dwek, also a Sephardic Jew, who offered Rabbi Kassin 5 to 10% return for laundering what was supposed to be "dirty money" via the congregation's charitable contributions bank accounts. Other members of the congregations are showing confidence and support for the Rabbis, and David Ben-Hooren, publisher of The Jewish Voice and Opinion, had this to say in support of his leaders:
.
Rabbi Saul Kassin Implicated In Money Laundering Scheme, Syrian Sephardic Community Shaken
By Phil Butler
July 25, 2009
In these tough times, when faith is often all some people have, the last thing anyone needs is a hint of impropriety from religious leaders. In the news from the New York Times today, Rabbi Saul Kassin and 4 other Syrian Sephardic Jewish Rabbis, have been implicated in an FBI money laundering case. According to the news, Rabbi Kassin, 87, along with the other Rabbis, used their congregations' charitable contributions to launder over $3 million in what turned out to be FBI sting money. The Rabbi of the New Jersey Shaare Zion Synagogue in Brooklyn, is considered the leading Sephardic cleric in the US.
The Sephardic Jewish community is in obvious shock over the allegations that perhaps their most respected Rabbi had anything to do with anything illegal, let alone using their charity for monetary gain. Syrian Sephardic Jews number roughly 75,000 in the Brooklyn area, and Rabbi Kassin leads roughly 50 synagogues nation wide. His father, Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin, founded the Shaare Zion. The Sephardic community traces its roots to Spain, North Africa and the Middle East. The US community is primarily comprised of families who immigrated to the US because of anti-Jewish attacks in Syria after the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. David Greenfield, Vice President of the Sephardic Community Federation, had this to say about the unbelievable events:
"The community is shocked and saddened by these allegations, which go against every value and teaching the community holds dear."
The FBI's case is built upon what looks like a sting operation in which an informant, Solomon Dwek, also a Sephardic Jew, who offered Rabbi Kassin 5 to 10% return for laundering what was supposed to be "dirty money" via the congregation's charitable contributions bank accounts. Other members of the congregations are showing confidence and support for the Rabbis, and David Ben-Hooren, publisher of The Jewish Voice and Opinion, had this to say in support of his leaders:
"When the facts come out, we'll find out that those rabbis never broke the law," he said. "I believe they're going to be vindicated. Knowing those rabbis for many years, I know that they devoted their lives to charity, and there's no way that they benefited from any of those activities."This community of devout Jewish people is well known for not only their charity and support of their community, but also for their entrepreneurial spirit. The congregation is encouraged to be successful in business, and several major brands have been launched from amongst them including, Jordache Jeans and the Century 21 department stores. If the charges prove to be true, it will obviously be a devastating blow to the congregation, and very bad for the communities efforts on a broader scale. I cannot help but think, if this news rings true, that theses Rabbis might have taken the term "entrepreneurial" a little too far. This is unfortunate news indeed for the people who rely on religious leaders for hope in troubled times.
.
QUOTE
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/nyregion...ml?ref=nyregion
July 24, 2009
Life Can Imitate Art: Indictments Describe Deals More Fit for a Crime Movie
By DAVID W. CHEN
They did it in diners. They did it in parking lots.
What emerges on page after page of the federal government's corruption investigation is that so many of the alleged deals happened in places that are almost visual clichés about New Jersey corruption. And some of the dialogue seems straight out of an introductory screenwriting class. Here are some of the moments, scenes and exchanges that are especially striking.
Cardboard Briefcase
It's sweet and crunchy and cinnamon toasty, and Apple Jacks cereal makes a brief but memorable cameo in the investigation.
At one point, according to the criminal complaint, Solomon Dwek, the cooperating witness, visits the Brooklyn home of Arye Weiss, who has agreed to launder money for him. Mr. Weiss gives Mr. Dwek "a box of Apple Jacks cereal in which were secreted bundles containing approximately $97,000 in cash," the complaint says.
Mr. Dwek removes a few bundles and asks, "So this is the, uh, the ninety-seven, right?" Mr. Weiss tells him it is, but also tells him he has removed $3,000 for himself.
"Maybe we'll have some more to pick up next week," Mr. Dwek tells him.
Mr. Dwek then heads to New Jersey, and takes the Apple Jacks box, with the cash still inside, to Eliahu Ben Haim, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, the complaint says.
'Green' Party Member
In February, Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt meets with Mr. Dwek, who was posing as a developer, and listens to his proposal to build a real estate project in Waretown.
Mr. Van Pelt, according to the complaint, jokes that Mr. Dwek should hire him as a "consultant" on the project.
Later, Mr. Dwek says he is neither a Democrat nor a Republican but a member of the "green" party, as in, as he put it, "Green is cash."
At a later meeting in Atlantic City, Mr. Van Pelt says he can help the project advance because he is on the Assembly Environmental Committee. Then, as a customer at the restaurant takes a photograph, Mr. Van Pelt says, "We don't want to get our picture taken," and laughs.
Later that month, Mr. Van Pelt accepts $10,000 in cash from Mr. Dwek, the complaint alleges. At a meeting on May 22, Mr. Van Pelt refers to the news that another assemblyman, Joseph Vas of Perth Amboy, had been indicted the day before on federal corruption charges.
"Defendant Van Pelt referred to this activity as dumb," the complaint says.
'In Good Hands'
Mariano Vega Jr., the president of the Jersey City Council, is described in one of the criminal complaints as seeing himself as a future mayor or congressman.
So when Mr. Dwek, the would-be developer, approaches Mr. Vega about building a sprawling project in the city, Mr. Vega volunteers that the state is planning legislation that could help the developer defray some infrastructure costs. Mr. Vega adds that he was providing that information early, before it gets "out of the box."
Mr. Dwek hands Mr. Vega a $2,600 check and says he is satisfied that he is in "good hands." Mr. Vega replies, "Like Allstate."
Organ Exchange
One passage describes the visit of Mr. Dwek to the Brooklyn home of Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, who prosecutors say traffics in illegal organ sales. Mr. Dwek introduces an undercover F.B.I. agent as his longtime secretary whose uncle is in need of a kidney.
Mr. Dwek says the uncle "needs to, uh, you know, organize to buy one and, uh, you know, we need to find, uh, how we can do this. I told him I'd take care of the financial arrangements."
Mr. Rosenbaum tells them he has been "doing this a long time," and will obtain a kidney from an Israeli donor, and gives them a price of $160,000. But, he explains, they must fabricate a relationship between the donor and the uncle, so that hospital authorities are not suspicious, given that it is illegal to buy human organs.
"Could be, ah, ah, neighbors, could be friends from shul, could be friends from the community, could be friends of, of, of his children," Mr. Rosenbaum says.
Mr. Rosenbaum says that he will need to have someone take care of the donor after the surgery. But when Mr. Dwek asks whether the donor will "get a good portion of" the $160,000, Mr. Rosenbaum responds: "Don't worry about it."
A Generous Guy
At a meeting just last week at a diner in Jersey City, L. Harvey Smith, an assemblyman and former acting mayor, is told by Mr. Dwek that his help is needed with traffic and environmental concerns with a development project planned for Garfield Avenue.
"I'm looking for a guy that can help me out. You know me, I know you. I trust you. Just like before the election," Mr. Dwek says, referring to a $5,000 payment that Mr. Smith accepted for his campaign fund. "I'm a generous guy and then anything else that needs to get done —— ."
Mr. Smith interrupts him: "According to your standards you're generous," he replies, prompting laughter.
Or Not So Generous
While the criminal complaints are rich with examples of local officials performing favors for relatively small bribes, as least one person, Dennis Jaslow, an investigator for the Hudson County Board of Elections and a former corrections officer, gripes about what Mr. Dwek gave him.
After accepting an unsealed envelope from Mr. Dwek containing $2,500 in cash in a parking lot of a North Bergen diner, Mr. Jaslow jokingly asks the cooperating witness, "Does it got my name on it?"
Mr. Dwek replies: "No, I don't have your name on it. Here's twenty-five hundred."
Mr. Jaslow says: "What happened? I thought you were hooking me up, man? You're cutting me down."
.
July 24, 2009
Life Can Imitate Art: Indictments Describe Deals More Fit for a Crime Movie
By DAVID W. CHEN
They did it in diners. They did it in parking lots.
What emerges on page after page of the federal government's corruption investigation is that so many of the alleged deals happened in places that are almost visual clichés about New Jersey corruption. And some of the dialogue seems straight out of an introductory screenwriting class. Here are some of the moments, scenes and exchanges that are especially striking.
Cardboard Briefcase
It's sweet and crunchy and cinnamon toasty, and Apple Jacks cereal makes a brief but memorable cameo in the investigation.
At one point, according to the criminal complaint, Solomon Dwek, the cooperating witness, visits the Brooklyn home of Arye Weiss, who has agreed to launder money for him. Mr. Weiss gives Mr. Dwek "a box of Apple Jacks cereal in which were secreted bundles containing approximately $97,000 in cash," the complaint says.
Mr. Dwek removes a few bundles and asks, "So this is the, uh, the ninety-seven, right?" Mr. Weiss tells him it is, but also tells him he has removed $3,000 for himself.
"Maybe we'll have some more to pick up next week," Mr. Dwek tells him.
Mr. Dwek then heads to New Jersey, and takes the Apple Jacks box, with the cash still inside, to Eliahu Ben Haim, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, the complaint says.
'Green' Party Member
In February, Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt meets with Mr. Dwek, who was posing as a developer, and listens to his proposal to build a real estate project in Waretown.
Mr. Van Pelt, according to the complaint, jokes that Mr. Dwek should hire him as a "consultant" on the project.
Later, Mr. Dwek says he is neither a Democrat nor a Republican but a member of the "green" party, as in, as he put it, "Green is cash."
At a later meeting in Atlantic City, Mr. Van Pelt says he can help the project advance because he is on the Assembly Environmental Committee. Then, as a customer at the restaurant takes a photograph, Mr. Van Pelt says, "We don't want to get our picture taken," and laughs.
Later that month, Mr. Van Pelt accepts $10,000 in cash from Mr. Dwek, the complaint alleges. At a meeting on May 22, Mr. Van Pelt refers to the news that another assemblyman, Joseph Vas of Perth Amboy, had been indicted the day before on federal corruption charges.
"Defendant Van Pelt referred to this activity as dumb," the complaint says.
'In Good Hands'
Mariano Vega Jr., the president of the Jersey City Council, is described in one of the criminal complaints as seeing himself as a future mayor or congressman.
So when Mr. Dwek, the would-be developer, approaches Mr. Vega about building a sprawling project in the city, Mr. Vega volunteers that the state is planning legislation that could help the developer defray some infrastructure costs. Mr. Vega adds that he was providing that information early, before it gets "out of the box."
Mr. Dwek hands Mr. Vega a $2,600 check and says he is satisfied that he is in "good hands." Mr. Vega replies, "Like Allstate."
Organ Exchange
One passage describes the visit of Mr. Dwek to the Brooklyn home of Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, who prosecutors say traffics in illegal organ sales. Mr. Dwek introduces an undercover F.B.I. agent as his longtime secretary whose uncle is in need of a kidney.
Mr. Dwek says the uncle "needs to, uh, you know, organize to buy one and, uh, you know, we need to find, uh, how we can do this. I told him I'd take care of the financial arrangements."
Mr. Rosenbaum tells them he has been "doing this a long time," and will obtain a kidney from an Israeli donor, and gives them a price of $160,000. But, he explains, they must fabricate a relationship between the donor and the uncle, so that hospital authorities are not suspicious, given that it is illegal to buy human organs.
"Could be, ah, ah, neighbors, could be friends from shul, could be friends from the community, could be friends of, of, of his children," Mr. Rosenbaum says.
Mr. Rosenbaum says that he will need to have someone take care of the donor after the surgery. But when Mr. Dwek asks whether the donor will "get a good portion of" the $160,000, Mr. Rosenbaum responds: "Don't worry about it."
A Generous Guy
At a meeting just last week at a diner in Jersey City, L. Harvey Smith, an assemblyman and former acting mayor, is told by Mr. Dwek that his help is needed with traffic and environmental concerns with a development project planned for Garfield Avenue.
"I'm looking for a guy that can help me out. You know me, I know you. I trust you. Just like before the election," Mr. Dwek says, referring to a $5,000 payment that Mr. Smith accepted for his campaign fund. "I'm a generous guy and then anything else that needs to get done —— ."
Mr. Smith interrupts him: "According to your standards you're generous," he replies, prompting laughter.
Or Not So Generous
While the criminal complaints are rich with examples of local officials performing favors for relatively small bribes, as least one person, Dennis Jaslow, an investigator for the Hudson County Board of Elections and a former corrections officer, gripes about what Mr. Dwek gave him.
After accepting an unsealed envelope from Mr. Dwek containing $2,500 in cash in a parking lot of a North Bergen diner, Mr. Jaslow jokingly asks the cooperating witness, "Does it got my name on it?"
Mr. Dwek replies: "No, I don't have your name on it. Here's twenty-five hundred."
Mr. Jaslow says: "What happened? I thought you were hooking me up, man? You're cutting me down."
.
QUOTE
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/nyregion/24rabbi.html
July 24, 2009
Syrian Sephardic Communities Shaken by Charges Against a Leading Rabbi
By PAUL VITELLO
The young receive free educations and the old get free geriatric care. Family businesses connect relatives in a web of interdependence to the furthest reaches of kinship. Wedding receptions with 1,000 guests are common. A Friday night Sabbath dinner with 40 people is the norm.
And that enveloping tradition among the Syrian Jewish communities of Brooklyn and New Jersey seemed to redouble the shock and outrage among their members Thursday after the arrests of five Sephardic rabbis in a New Jersey corruption investigation.
"Shock and disbelief — my cellphone, my office phone, they're ringing off the hook," said Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn, who represents an Orthodox Jewish community adjacent to the southern Brooklyn neighborhoods where about 75,000 Sephardic Jews live. "People do not believe it."
In a criminal complaint, the F.B.I. said the rabbis used their congregations' charitable organizations to launder about $3 million — passing what they were told was a donor's ill-gotten gains through their charities' bank accounts, and then returning the money to the donor in exchange for a cut of 5 to 10 percent.
The donor turned out to be an apparent F.B.I. informer, Solomon Dwek, who, like the rabbis, is a Sephardic Jew of Syrian descent.
One of the five rabbis, Saul J. Kassin, 87, a slight, soft-spoken man who has written several books on Jewish law, leads the largest of about 50 Sephardic synagogues in the United States, Shaare Zion in Brooklyn. He is considered the leading cleric of the national community.
The congregation was founded by his father, Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin, who was known from 1932 until his death in 1994 as the chief rabbi of Brooklyn's Syrian Sephardic Jews.
David G. Greenfield, executive vice president of the Sephardic Community Federation, a group representing the approximately 100,000 Sephardim in Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey, said in a statement, "The community is shocked and saddened by these allegations, which go against every value and teaching the community holds dear."
He added, "If over time these allegations are proven, we must remember that these are the isolated actions of a few individuals."
Sephardic Jews trace their ancestry to Spain and various parts of North Africa and the Middle East, as distinct from the Ashkenazic Jews from Eastern Europe. They include Moroccans, Turks, Iranians and Iraqis. But most belong to families that emigrated to the United States from the Middle East, especially Syria, because of anti-Jewish attacks there after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
Unique among groups within Judaism, Sephardic leaders have tried mightily to strike a difficult balance between preservation of identity and participation in the American entrepreneurial dream, said Prof. Aviva Ben-Ur of the University of Massachusetts, author of "Sephardic Jews in America: A Diasporic History."
In 1935, Rabbi Kassin's father issued an edict forbidding both marriage outside the faith and marriage to Jewish converts, she said. At the same time, Sephardim, unlike the ultra-Orthodox who live at a remove from American society, attend public schools in the lower grades and are encouraged to succeed in business.
Among the successful businesses founded by Sephardic Jews are Jordache and Bonjour, the jeans makers, and the Conway and Century 21 department stores.
Phone messages left at Rabbi Kassin's home were not returned. At the home of his son, Jacob S. Kassin, a woman answered and said the son would not be available to comment.
David Ben-Hooren, a member of the congregation and publisher of The Jewish Voice and Opinion, a conservative monthly newspaper, spoke to reporters at the synagogue, on Ocean Parkway.
"When the facts come out, we'll find out that those rabbis never broke the law," he said. "I believe they're going to be vindicated. Knowing those rabbis for many years, I know that they devoted their lives to charity, and there's no way that they benefited from any of those activities."
.
July 24, 2009
Syrian Sephardic Communities Shaken by Charges Against a Leading Rabbi
By PAUL VITELLO
The young receive free educations and the old get free geriatric care. Family businesses connect relatives in a web of interdependence to the furthest reaches of kinship. Wedding receptions with 1,000 guests are common. A Friday night Sabbath dinner with 40 people is the norm.
And that enveloping tradition among the Syrian Jewish communities of Brooklyn and New Jersey seemed to redouble the shock and outrage among their members Thursday after the arrests of five Sephardic rabbis in a New Jersey corruption investigation.
"Shock and disbelief — my cellphone, my office phone, they're ringing off the hook," said Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn, who represents an Orthodox Jewish community adjacent to the southern Brooklyn neighborhoods where about 75,000 Sephardic Jews live. "People do not believe it."
In a criminal complaint, the F.B.I. said the rabbis used their congregations' charitable organizations to launder about $3 million — passing what they were told was a donor's ill-gotten gains through their charities' bank accounts, and then returning the money to the donor in exchange for a cut of 5 to 10 percent.
The donor turned out to be an apparent F.B.I. informer, Solomon Dwek, who, like the rabbis, is a Sephardic Jew of Syrian descent.
One of the five rabbis, Saul J. Kassin, 87, a slight, soft-spoken man who has written several books on Jewish law, leads the largest of about 50 Sephardic synagogues in the United States, Shaare Zion in Brooklyn. He is considered the leading cleric of the national community.
The congregation was founded by his father, Rabbi Jacob S. Kassin, who was known from 1932 until his death in 1994 as the chief rabbi of Brooklyn's Syrian Sephardic Jews.
David G. Greenfield, executive vice president of the Sephardic Community Federation, a group representing the approximately 100,000 Sephardim in Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey, said in a statement, "The community is shocked and saddened by these allegations, which go against every value and teaching the community holds dear."
He added, "If over time these allegations are proven, we must remember that these are the isolated actions of a few individuals."
Sephardic Jews trace their ancestry to Spain and various parts of North Africa and the Middle East, as distinct from the Ashkenazic Jews from Eastern Europe. They include Moroccans, Turks, Iranians and Iraqis. But most belong to families that emigrated to the United States from the Middle East, especially Syria, because of anti-Jewish attacks there after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
Unique among groups within Judaism, Sephardic leaders have tried mightily to strike a difficult balance between preservation of identity and participation in the American entrepreneurial dream, said Prof. Aviva Ben-Ur of the University of Massachusetts, author of "Sephardic Jews in America: A Diasporic History."
In 1935, Rabbi Kassin's father issued an edict forbidding both marriage outside the faith and marriage to Jewish converts, she said. At the same time, Sephardim, unlike the ultra-Orthodox who live at a remove from American society, attend public schools in the lower grades and are encouraged to succeed in business.
Among the successful businesses founded by Sephardic Jews are Jordache and Bonjour, the jeans makers, and the Conway and Century 21 department stores.
Phone messages left at Rabbi Kassin's home were not returned. At the home of his son, Jacob S. Kassin, a woman answered and said the son would not be available to comment.
David Ben-Hooren, a member of the congregation and publisher of The Jewish Voice and Opinion, a conservative monthly newspaper, spoke to reporters at the synagogue, on Ocean Parkway.
"When the facts come out, we'll find out that those rabbis never broke the law," he said. "I believe they're going to be vindicated. Knowing those rabbis for many years, I know that they devoted their lives to charity, and there's no way that they benefited from any of those activities."
.
Of course, a conspiracy-theory type website I check out is going wild and framing this as a 9/11/01 related bust - where's graham?
QUOTE:
...the leader of this vast spy ring who they have identified as Rabbi Saul J. Kassin and who is the 87-year-old leader of the Sephardic Jewish community in the United States. These reports further state that along with Rabbi Kassin's arrest, 5 of his subordinate rabbis, and over 40 of their ?Jewish co-conspirators, many being firmly established as politicians and holding offices of public power... (arrests as stated, all else unverified)
...Even more interesting to note about Solomon Dwek, these reports continue, was his financial backing for Dominick Suter who established in New Jersey a moving company named Urban Moving System... (no independent confirmation online)
A few days after the 9/11/01 attacks, Urban Moving System's Israeli owner, Dominick Suter, dropped his business and fled the country for Israel. He was in such a hurry to flee America that some of Urban Moving System's customers were left with their furniture stranded in storage facilities (21). (see link)
http://www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/press/storage.htm
Multiple 9/11 alternate history sites reference white vans (Urban Moving System) in NJ with dancing guys on the roof. (not my issue but even I've heard that)
Great work here by law enforcement whatever the story!
Link from The Bergen Record confirms the infamous 9/11 NJ white van(s) did belong to Urban Moving Systems. No verification that Dwek backed owner Suter, however, but a shocking coincidence if he did, considering everything above.
QUOTE
http://web.archive.org/web/20011108025936/...an200109125.htm
Five men detained as suspected conspirators
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
By PAULO LIMA
Staff Writer
About eight hours after terrorists struck Manhattan's tallest skyscrapers, police in Bergen County detained five men who they said were found carrying maps linking them to the blasts.
The five men, who were in a van stopped on Route 3 in East Rutherford around 4:30 p.m., were being questioned by police but had not been charged with any crime late Tuesday. The Bergen County Police bomb squad X-rayed packages found inside the van but did not find any explosives, authorities said.
However, sources close to the investigation said they found other evidence linking the men to the bombing plot.
"There are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted," the source said. "It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park."
Sources also said that bomb-sniffing dogs reacted as if they had detected explosives, although officers were unable to find anything. The FBI seized the van for further testing, authorities said.
Sources said the van was stopped as it headed east on Route 3, between the Hackensack River bridge and the Sheraton hotel. As a precaution, police shut down Route 3 traffic in both directions after the stop and evacuated a small roadside motel near the Sheraton.
Sources close to the investigation said the men said they were Israeli tourists, but police had not been able to confirm their identities. Authorities would not release their names.
East Rutherford officers stopped the van after the FBI's Newark Field Office broadcast an alert asking surrounding police departments to look for a white Chevrolet van, police said.
"We got an alert to be on the lookout for a white Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration and writing on the side," said Bergen County Police Chief John Schmidig. "Three individuals were seen celebrating in Liberty State Park after the impact. They said three people were jumping up and down."
The East Rutherford officers summoned the county police bomb squad, New Jersey state troopers, and FBI agents, who waited alongside the van as prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office tried to obtain a warrant to search the van late Tuesday, Schmidig said.
By 10 p.m., members of the bomb squad were picking through the van and X-raying packages found inside, Schmidig said.
Sources said the FBI alert, known as a BOLO or "Be On Lookout," was sent out at 3:31 p.m.
It read:
"Vehicle possibly related to New York terrorist attack. White, 2000 Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration with 'Urban Moving Systems' sign on back seen at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ, at the time of first impact of jetliner into World Trade Center.
"Three individuals with van were seen celebrating after initial impact and subsequent explosion. FBI Newark Field Office requests that, if the van is located, hold for prints and detain individuals."
FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll declined to comment on the incident late Tuesday.
State police Lt. Col. Barry W. Roberson confirmed the traffic stop at a late night news briefing at state police headquarters in Trenton. He would not elaborate, however.
Business records show an Urban Moving Systems with offices on West 50th Street in Manhattan and on West 18th Street in Weehawken. Telephone messages left at the businesses Tuesday evening were not immediately returned.
Business records show the owner as Dominik Suter of Fair Lawn. A woman answering the telephone at Suter's home acknowledged he owned the company but refused to comment further. She also declined to identify herself.
It was not clear Tuesday whether the van stopped by police is related to Suter's company.
A business traveler staying at the Homestead Studio Suites Hotel said she watched state troopers drive the suspects away in a procession of state police cars about 5 p.m.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said the people detained appeared to be white men, but she could not give more details. About 5:30 p.m., police evacuated the hotel without offering guests an explanation.
"First, they told us we could hang out in the lobby, but then they told us we had to leave," the traveler said.
At 10 p.m., the hotel guest said she could see at least two police officers searching through the van while a crowd of other officers kept their distance. Except for police vehicles and a tow truck, the service road beside Route 3 was empty, she said.
Staff Writer Wendy Ruderman contributed to this report. Staff Writer Paulo Lima's e-mail address is lima@northjersey.com
.
Five men detained as suspected conspirators
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
By PAULO LIMA
Staff Writer
About eight hours after terrorists struck Manhattan's tallest skyscrapers, police in Bergen County detained five men who they said were found carrying maps linking them to the blasts.
The five men, who were in a van stopped on Route 3 in East Rutherford around 4:30 p.m., were being questioned by police but had not been charged with any crime late Tuesday. The Bergen County Police bomb squad X-rayed packages found inside the van but did not find any explosives, authorities said.
However, sources close to the investigation said they found other evidence linking the men to the bombing plot.
"There are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted," the source said. "It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park."
Sources also said that bomb-sniffing dogs reacted as if they had detected explosives, although officers were unable to find anything. The FBI seized the van for further testing, authorities said.
Sources said the van was stopped as it headed east on Route 3, between the Hackensack River bridge and the Sheraton hotel. As a precaution, police shut down Route 3 traffic in both directions after the stop and evacuated a small roadside motel near the Sheraton.
Sources close to the investigation said the men said they were Israeli tourists, but police had not been able to confirm their identities. Authorities would not release their names.
East Rutherford officers stopped the van after the FBI's Newark Field Office broadcast an alert asking surrounding police departments to look for a white Chevrolet van, police said.
"We got an alert to be on the lookout for a white Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration and writing on the side," said Bergen County Police Chief John Schmidig. "Three individuals were seen celebrating in Liberty State Park after the impact. They said three people were jumping up and down."
The East Rutherford officers summoned the county police bomb squad, New Jersey state troopers, and FBI agents, who waited alongside the van as prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office tried to obtain a warrant to search the van late Tuesday, Schmidig said.
By 10 p.m., members of the bomb squad were picking through the van and X-raying packages found inside, Schmidig said.
Sources said the FBI alert, known as a BOLO or "Be On Lookout," was sent out at 3:31 p.m.
It read:
"Vehicle possibly related to New York terrorist attack. White, 2000 Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration with 'Urban Moving Systems' sign on back seen at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ, at the time of first impact of jetliner into World Trade Center.
"Three individuals with van were seen celebrating after initial impact and subsequent explosion. FBI Newark Field Office requests that, if the van is located, hold for prints and detain individuals."
FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll declined to comment on the incident late Tuesday.
State police Lt. Col. Barry W. Roberson confirmed the traffic stop at a late night news briefing at state police headquarters in Trenton. He would not elaborate, however.
Business records show an Urban Moving Systems with offices on West 50th Street in Manhattan and on West 18th Street in Weehawken. Telephone messages left at the businesses Tuesday evening were not immediately returned.
Business records show the owner as Dominik Suter of Fair Lawn. A woman answering the telephone at Suter's home acknowledged he owned the company but refused to comment further. She also declined to identify herself.
It was not clear Tuesday whether the van stopped by police is related to Suter's company.
A business traveler staying at the Homestead Studio Suites Hotel said she watched state troopers drive the suspects away in a procession of state police cars about 5 p.m.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said the people detained appeared to be white men, but she could not give more details. About 5:30 p.m., police evacuated the hotel without offering guests an explanation.
"First, they told us we could hang out in the lobby, but then they told us we had to leave," the traveler said.
At 10 p.m., the hotel guest said she could see at least two police officers searching through the van while a crowd of other officers kept their distance. Except for police vehicles and a tow truck, the service road beside Route 3 was empty, she said.
Staff Writer Wendy Ruderman contributed to this report. Staff Writer Paulo Lima's e-mail address is lima@northjersey.com
.
v-e-r-y-i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g- OYE VEY
so is the consensus- these people DIDN'T play ball with someone, so they got outed?
Is this a classic triple cross?
and SHAME on the Rabbi's...
makes me embarrassed yet again to be a Jew if this is proven in court.
as for 9/11 and the vans, which indeed have been discussed on this board in the past- that was referenced in the movie Munich wasn't it? (might have been another one).
so is the consensus- these people DIDN'T play ball with someone, so they got outed?
Is this a classic triple cross?
and SHAME on the Rabbi's...
makes me embarrassed yet again to be a Jew if this is proven in court.
as for 9/11 and the vans, which indeed have been discussed on this board in the past- that was referenced in the movie Munich wasn't it? (might have been another one).
I wonder-
Did Steve Jobs get a new pancreas or liver this way?
Did he get in front of 1000s of others on the list?
How is it the worlds richest man has survived the world's deadliest illness that most die from w/in 3 months?
Did Steve Jobs get a new pancreas or liver this way?
Did he get in front of 1000s of others on the list?
How is it the worlds richest man has survived the world's deadliest illness that most die from w/in 3 months?
Graham if you live in New Jersey this would explain a lot about your sense of anger with local government and politicians. It would also support your belief in conspiracy theories.
QUOTE(cutecat @ Jul 26 2009, 12:05 PM)
Graham if you live in New Jersey this would explain a lot about your sense of anger with local government and politicians. It would also support your belief in conspiracy theories.
Lived in NY now NJ
and the corruption exposed cops in NYC by Frank Serpico (later an Al Pacino movie "Serpico")
and the Donald Manes NYC scandal in the 1970s
the pharmicist in Brooklyn found dead (and reported suicide) that was involved in the cop steroid scandal a couple of years back
as for the organ selling-this has been rumored for decades, this is the first time there is proof it existed (many thought it was urban legend).
and add just seeing what was done 9/11 and afterwards (including the very rapid removal of key evidence) juxtaposed with other plane accidents
where the parts are meticulously put back together
(and how the Sully the Hero plane in the hudson this winter and how that plane was in plain sight of everyone for over a week afterward to see)
It will be a bit difficult for defense attorneys to succeed in this one, Solomon Dwek wore a wire and ratted out everyone he could to save his hide...
Kosher Nostra & Dirty Jersey - * Rabbis & Top Pols Among 44 Busted * Schemes to Sell Kidneys, Launder $$ * Informant 'Briber' Caught Bigs on TapeJuly 24, 2009
Kosher Nostra & Dirty Jersey - * Rabbis & Top Pols Among 44 Busted * Schemes to Sell Kidneys, Launder $$ * Informant 'Briber' Caught Bigs on TapeJuly 24, 2009
QUOTE
At the center of the stings by the FBI and the IRS was Solomon Dwek - a real-estate developer busted in May 2006 for trying to rip off $50 million from PNC Bank through a check-kiting scheme. He was identified by sources as the confidential witness in the case. Dwek's original brief was to expose international money laundering by rabbis in Jersey and Brooklyn.Once flipped by the feds, the 36-year-old posed as a crooked businessman looking to launder proceeds from fraudulent bank loans or sales of fake designer handbags to accomplices who would launder the money through charities in the United States and Israel. They moved "at least tens of millions of dollars through charitable, nonprofit entities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey," Marra said. Dwek boasted to his unsuspecting clients that he "schnookied," or fooled, the banks into giving him the loans - and needed to clean the money so it couldn't be traced back to him. But the clients turned out to be the schnooks. The various rabbis operated independently or in small groups, rather than as one network, authorities said. Dwek, who ran a Deal, NJ, yeshiva that catered to Sephardic Jews, also offered to bribe officials to smooth the way for his real-estate projects. That phase of the ruse ensnared the politicians. Cammarano, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega Jr., Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, and Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, were allegedly captured on tape seeking to trade their influence for cash, according to federal complaints. All are Democrats except for Van Pelt, a Republican. The investigation was described by the feds as "dual track," because the political corruption and laundering probes were separate. The only overlap occurred when alleged money launderer Moshe Altman of Hudson County allegedly washed $600,000 in FBI checks provided by Dwek. Altman introduced Dwek to Jersey City buildings inspector John Guarini, who took $40,000 in bribes, authorities said. Perhaps the most shocking charge to rock the Jewish community involved Brooklyn rabbi Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 58, who allegedly said he could broker the sale of a kidney for $160,000. On tapes, Rosenbaum allegedly boasted to Dwek that he'd been an organ "matchmaker" for more than 10 years and could bring over an Israeli donor for a "schmear," or money. Other prominent busts in the Jewish community included: * Eliahu Ben Haim, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob synagogue in Deal, who allegedly laundered up to $160,000 by cashing checks made out to his tax-exempt charities and an Israeli connection, then keeping a 10 percent commission. * Saul Kassin, 87, the chief rabbi of Sharee Zion synagogue in Brooklyn, who allegedly accepted Dwek's checks to launder money. * Two Brooklyn brothers, Mordchai Fish and Lavel Schwartz, both rabbis at Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn, who also allegedly were caught boasting they could launder millions.
QUOTE
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/h..._cammarano.html
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano is charged in N.J. corruption sweep
by Star-Ledger, Jersey Journal and Wire Reports Thursday July 23, 2009, 6:55 PM
NEWARK -- Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, seen by many as a rising star in New Jersey politics, spent Wednesday night celebrating his birthday and working as a bartender at the St. Ann's Feast in Hoboken.
This morning -- his 23rd day as mayor of the Hudson County city -- he was in handcuffs.
Cammarano, 32, a Democrat, is charged along with associate Michael Schaffer, a commissioner on the North Hudson Utilities Authority, with taking three payments of $5,000 each to push through building plans for a high-rise development in Hoboken that was being proposed by a man who turned out to be a cooperating witness for the government.
In total, Cammarano is accused of taking $25,000 in bribes. Cammarano's bail was set at $100,000, and he posted it shortly after a federal hearing in Newark.
Read the complaint filed against Cammarano by the U.S. Attorney's Office
The charges were quick to spread in Hoboken, which is just three weeks removed from a bruising mayoral election. City Council President Dawn Zimmer, who lost a runoff election to Cammarano by 161 votes, immediately called for his resignation.
AMANDA BROWN/THE STAR-LEDGER
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano comes out of Federal Court in Newark after his hearing on corruption charges.
"I was floored when a friend called me. I couldn't believe it," Zimmer said. "These are very serious charges against him and it would be extremely difficult for him to continue as mayor. It would be a cloud hanging over him. He'll be spending a great deal of his time fighting these charges and the overall management of the city would be very difficult. I think this would be best for the people of Hoboken if he resigns."
Late this afternoon, Cammarano emerged from the federal courthouse in Newark and stood silently as his attorney, Joseph Hayden, professed his client's innocence.
"He intends to plead innocent to the charges because he is innocent of the charges," Hayden said. "He will fight these charges."
Previously a Hoboken councilman, Cammarano also is an attorney who specializes in election law. While still a candidate for mayor, the government said, he and Schaffer met in April with the cooperating witness at a diner in Hoboken.
The cooperating witness reportedly told Cammarano to "make sure you get my stuff expedited." To which, according to the government, the candidate replied: "I promise you ... you're gonna be treated like a friend."
Moments later, in the parking lot, Schaffer took the first $5,000 in cash, the government says.
Then, on July 16, just days after taking office, Cammarano and Schaffer allegedly met the cooperating witness again at a Hoboken diner and accepted another $10,000. Cammarano allegedly said the money would be used pay campaign debts.
The government complaint also outlines other statements it attributed to Cammarano. When talking about the runoff election, Cammarano allegedly said, "I could be, uh, indicted, and I'm still gonna win 85 to 95 percent," of certain voter segments that were "locked down."
And when speaking about the future, he allegedly spoke boastfully of the day when his world would fall into three categories:
"There's the people who were with us ... There's the people who climbed on board in the runoff. They can get in line ... And then there are the people who were against us the whole way. They get ground."
"They get ground into powder."
Star-Ledger staff writer Philip Read contributed to this report, which also includes material from the Jersey Journal and the Record.
COMMENT:
Hoboken is having an exciting couple of weeks. First, the Housing Authority Commisioner gets locked up for taking money from prospective poor people that want section 8 housing.
Wednesday July 15, 2009, 10:54 AM
Amy Sara Clark/Hoboken Now
Hoboken Housing Authority Commissioner Hector Claveria.A Hoboken Housing Authority Commissioner was arrested last night, according to the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office. Hector Claveria was charged with bribery, official misconduct and receiving an unlawful benefit. According to Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio, Claveria accepted cash in return for bumping somebody up on the waiting list for an apartment in the Housing Authority.
And now the Mayor or should I say Player takes his place along side a long line of "You got to pay to play" politicians in Jersey.
Go get 'em boys there's a bunch more out there for the pickin'!
.
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano is charged in N.J. corruption sweep
by Star-Ledger, Jersey Journal and Wire Reports Thursday July 23, 2009, 6:55 PM
NEWARK -- Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, seen by many as a rising star in New Jersey politics, spent Wednesday night celebrating his birthday and working as a bartender at the St. Ann's Feast in Hoboken.
This morning -- his 23rd day as mayor of the Hudson County city -- he was in handcuffs.
Cammarano, 32, a Democrat, is charged along with associate Michael Schaffer, a commissioner on the North Hudson Utilities Authority, with taking three payments of $5,000 each to push through building plans for a high-rise development in Hoboken that was being proposed by a man who turned out to be a cooperating witness for the government.
In total, Cammarano is accused of taking $25,000 in bribes. Cammarano's bail was set at $100,000, and he posted it shortly after a federal hearing in Newark.
Read the complaint filed against Cammarano by the U.S. Attorney's Office
The charges were quick to spread in Hoboken, which is just three weeks removed from a bruising mayoral election. City Council President Dawn Zimmer, who lost a runoff election to Cammarano by 161 votes, immediately called for his resignation.
AMANDA BROWN/THE STAR-LEDGER
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano comes out of Federal Court in Newark after his hearing on corruption charges.
"I was floored when a friend called me. I couldn't believe it," Zimmer said. "These are very serious charges against him and it would be extremely difficult for him to continue as mayor. It would be a cloud hanging over him. He'll be spending a great deal of his time fighting these charges and the overall management of the city would be very difficult. I think this would be best for the people of Hoboken if he resigns."
Late this afternoon, Cammarano emerged from the federal courthouse in Newark and stood silently as his attorney, Joseph Hayden, professed his client's innocence.
"He intends to plead innocent to the charges because he is innocent of the charges," Hayden said. "He will fight these charges."
Previously a Hoboken councilman, Cammarano also is an attorney who specializes in election law. While still a candidate for mayor, the government said, he and Schaffer met in April with the cooperating witness at a diner in Hoboken.
The cooperating witness reportedly told Cammarano to "make sure you get my stuff expedited." To which, according to the government, the candidate replied: "I promise you ... you're gonna be treated like a friend."
Moments later, in the parking lot, Schaffer took the first $5,000 in cash, the government says.
Then, on July 16, just days after taking office, Cammarano and Schaffer allegedly met the cooperating witness again at a Hoboken diner and accepted another $10,000. Cammarano allegedly said the money would be used pay campaign debts.
The government complaint also outlines other statements it attributed to Cammarano. When talking about the runoff election, Cammarano allegedly said, "I could be, uh, indicted, and I'm still gonna win 85 to 95 percent," of certain voter segments that were "locked down."
And when speaking about the future, he allegedly spoke boastfully of the day when his world would fall into three categories:
"There's the people who were with us ... There's the people who climbed on board in the runoff. They can get in line ... And then there are the people who were against us the whole way. They get ground."
"They get ground into powder."
Star-Ledger staff writer Philip Read contributed to this report, which also includes material from the Jersey Journal and the Record.
COMMENT:
Hoboken is having an exciting couple of weeks. First, the Housing Authority Commisioner gets locked up for taking money from prospective poor people that want section 8 housing.
Wednesday July 15, 2009, 10:54 AM
Amy Sara Clark/Hoboken Now
Hoboken Housing Authority Commissioner Hector Claveria.A Hoboken Housing Authority Commissioner was arrested last night, according to the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office. Hector Claveria was charged with bribery, official misconduct and receiving an unlawful benefit. According to Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio, Claveria accepted cash in return for bumping somebody up on the waiting list for an apartment in the Housing Authority.
And now the Mayor or should I say Player takes his place along side a long line of "You got to pay to play" politicians in Jersey.
Go get 'em boys there's a bunch more out there for the pickin'!
.
QUOTE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cammarano
Peter Cammarano III (born July 22, 1977) is the 37th mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, serving since July 1, 2009. He was born in Wayne, New Jersey and attended Boston University and Seton Hall University School of Law. In a 2005 run-off election he was elected Councilman-at-Large in Hoboken[1] and became Hoboken's youngest mayor in 2009.
In 2009 he won the Hoboken mayoral election, though his electoral victory against Dawn Zimmer was not without controversy. His margin of victory was only 161 votes, pulling ahead thanks to absentee and provisional ballots. Zimmer's three running mates won control of the city council despite Cammarano's mayoral victory. [2]
He was sworn into office on July 1, 2009. Cammarano, who was 31 years old at the time he took office, became the youngest Mayor of Hoboken in history.[3]
Cammarano served in the Al Gore-Joe Lieberman presidential campaign in 2000. In 2004 he served as Hoboken coordinator for the John Kerry-John Edwards presidential campaign. In 2006 he served as legal team coordinator for Bob Menendez' Senate campaign. In 2008 he served as general counsel for both the Hillary Clinton for President and Frank Lautenberg for Senate Campaigns.[4]
On July 23, 2009, just over three weeks after assuming the office of mayor, Cammarano was arrested by the FBI as part of a major corruption and international money laundering conspiracy probe known as Operation Bid Rig. Cammarano was charged with accepting $25,000 in cash bribes from an undercover cooperating witness.[5][6].
.
Peter Cammarano III (born July 22, 1977) is the 37th mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, serving since July 1, 2009. He was born in Wayne, New Jersey and attended Boston University and Seton Hall University School of Law. In a 2005 run-off election he was elected Councilman-at-Large in Hoboken[1] and became Hoboken's youngest mayor in 2009.
In 2009 he won the Hoboken mayoral election, though his electoral victory against Dawn Zimmer was not without controversy. His margin of victory was only 161 votes, pulling ahead thanks to absentee and provisional ballots. Zimmer's three running mates won control of the city council despite Cammarano's mayoral victory. [2]
He was sworn into office on July 1, 2009. Cammarano, who was 31 years old at the time he took office, became the youngest Mayor of Hoboken in history.[3]
Cammarano served in the Al Gore-Joe Lieberman presidential campaign in 2000. In 2004 he served as Hoboken coordinator for the John Kerry-John Edwards presidential campaign. In 2006 he served as legal team coordinator for Bob Menendez' Senate campaign. In 2008 he served as general counsel for both the Hillary Clinton for President and Frank Lautenberg for Senate Campaigns.[4]
On July 23, 2009, just over three weeks after assuming the office of mayor, Cammarano was arrested by the FBI as part of a major corruption and international money laundering conspiracy probe known as Operation Bid Rig. Cammarano was charged with accepting $25,000 in cash bribes from an undercover cooperating witness.[5][6].
.
http://blog.nj.com/njv_mark_diionno/2009/0...e_a.html
A tale of two Hobokens: Where an Italian tradition of pride clashes with its disgraced kid mayor
Posted by Mark DiIonno/Star-Ledger columnist July 27, 2009 9:55AM
HOBOKEN -- For 99 years, the feast of St. Ann has been a celebration of Italian heritage in Hoboken, with a street carnival and the annual procession of a gold-laden 600-pound statue through the streets of the Italian section. Another arrested politician didn't change that, even if there is a vowel at the end of his name. One reason is that Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano isn't really a Hoboken Italian. He grew up in Wayne. The suburbs.
More than a symbol of old blue-collar Italian Hoboken, he is a symbol of the newer loft-and-brownstone Hoboken. The word used to be Yuppie, but it was a dumb word back in the '80s, when Hoboken began its transformation, and it is a dumb word now. Still, in Cammarano's "perp walk" photo entering FBI headquarters in Newark, he was wearing the uniform: neatly pressed off-white khakis and a button-down shirt. He is a 32-year-old lawyer. Well-educated and ambitious. A success. There are thousands of kids from the Jersey suburbs just like him living along the Hudson.
Jennifer Brown/The Star-Ledger
Outside the Monte San Giacomo club in Hoboken Sunday, donations adorn a statue of San Giacomo Apostolo, the brother of St. Ann.
Full Star-Ledger coverage of the New Jersey corruption arrestsAnd so you wonder where it is the kid mayor learned his tough talk. He wasn't even in office when he told an FBI informant about how he was gonna do business, talking like he thinks Hudson County pols should talk, while working out the details of cash payments from a wire wearing-developer.
"I promise you, you're gonna be treated as a friend. There's the people who were with us. There's the people who climbed on board in the runoff. They can wait in line. And then there's the people who were against us the whole way. They get ground. They get ground into powder." And even before he was elected, he bragged to the informant, "Right now, the Italians, the Hispanics and the seniors are locked down. Nothing can change that now. I could be, uh, indicted, and I'm gonna still win 85 or 95 percent of those populations." Pretty smug stuff. And secret diner meetings. Cash in envelopes. Bagmen. All from a guy on the job less than a month.
All from a guy not from the neighborhood. The kid mayor grew up in the suburbs, but now lives on Bloomfield Street, a block off Washington, in a gentrified brownstone neighborhood. Not in the Italian section, not on the further south-and-west streets around Seventh and Jefferson, or Sixth and Adams. Those intersections have honorary names: St. Ann's Square, where the sand-colored brick church is the Sunday magnet, and Piazza Monte San Giacomo, where the neighborhood's largest civic organization resides. These are the cornerstone of the place Cammarano is not from, but a place he allegedly represented as under his control to the FBI informant who was looking to make sure he was bribing the right guy.
Yesterday, during the St. Ann's Festival and procession through the streets of Hoboken's little Italy, it was apparent that young mayor may have overstated his influence. Now that he's been charged, he doesn't have much locked down.
"I think it's pretty stupid. I think he's pretty naïve," said Jimmy Rizzo, a Hoboken native and member of the Monte San Giacomo club. "We don't like being taken for granted as a people."
"It's disappointing,'' said club president Carmine Percontino. "We feel terrible about the whole thing. A little betrayed. You hope things will be different, but they never are. I would like to not believe it. I hope it is wrong. But if it's not ..."
The club has a tradition on the day of the procession of opening up its doors to the public for free soft drinks, water and Italian roast beef sandwiches. Outside the club, a statue of San Giacomo Apostolo, the brother of St. Ann, is put on a gold-trimmed pedestal, and donation bills ranging from $100s to $5s are pinned to a sash.
"We're hard-working people here," Rizzo said. "We support the community. There's nothing remotely political about the club. We're not in anybody's camp. I don't think you can associate a whole group that way."
Over at St. Ann's, many people chose not to speak about Cammarano.
"Today is about St. Ann and the feast. We're going into our 100th year of this festival and 110 years of our church. To me, that's a bigger story than the mayor," a member of the festival committee said while working the zeppole stand. "The church doesn't want to be involved in it."
But Steve Barrera, who was on vacation in the Dominican Republic last week, said he "felt ashamed" when the news broke.
"That's all you heard about on the news," said Barrera, resting on the steps of the church. "Corrupt politicians in New Jersey. It was big news, even down there."
A woman in St. Ann's selling votive candles called Cammarano's arrest "a shame."
"He comes to church here sometimes. You couldn't meet a nicer kid. This is a kid with an education you couldn't believe. Very smart. The nicest kid."
And that leaves the question. After just a couple of years of politics, and 23 days on the job, was Cammarano already this jaded and corrupt? Or was he just doing what he thought was expected?
QUOTE
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aS75MsiDa4WU
New Jersey Mayors, Five Rabbis Arrested in Corruption Probe
By David Voreacos
Last Updated: July 24, 2009 00:01 EDT
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- The mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus, New Jersey, and five rabbis were among 44 people charged by the U.S. with public corruption and money laundering. Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, 32, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, 64, and Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, 42, all Democrats; Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega Jr., 59; State Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, 44, a Republican from Ocean Township; and Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, a Jersey City Democrat, were charged yesterday in an FBI complaint. All except Smith appeared in U.S. court in Newark, New Jersey.
The corruption probe, based in Hudson County, netted many public officials accused of pledging assistance for bribes. A cooperating witness in that probe also infiltrated a "pre- existing money laundering network" that moved "at least tens of millions of dollars through charitable, nonprofit entities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey," according to a release by acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra.
"The fact that we arrested a number of rabbis this morning does not make this a religiously motivated investigation," Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's office in Newark, said at a news conference. "It is not a politically motivated investigation. It is about crime, corruption, arrogance and a shocking betrayal of public trust."
Cooperating Witness
The roundup of suspects is one of the largest ever in New Jersey, where more than 100 public officials have been convicted of corruption in the past few years. The cooperating witness laundered $3 million through the rabbis and also made bribe payments to public officials, prosecutors said. Investigators made hundreds of hours of audio and video recordings of illicit transactions, according to prosecutors.
The cooperating witness is Solomon Dwek, a real estate developer in Monmouth County, New Jersey, who was charged on May 11, 2006, with scheming to defraud PNC Bank out of $50 million, according to three people familiar with the matter. Dwek is a rabbi's son who was vice president of the Deal Yeshiva School in West Long Branch, New Jersey.
Cammarano, Hoboken's youngest mayor, was sworn in July 1. Former state Assemblyman Louis Manzo, 54, a Democrat from Jersey City, and Leona Beldini, a deputy mayor of Jersey City, also were charged. Cammarano attorney Joseph Hayden didn't immediately return a call seeking comment. Suarez lawyer Henry Klingeman said his client was innocent and wouldn't resign.
Five Rabbis
The rabbis are Saul Kassin, 87, chief rabbi of Sharee Zion, a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York; Eliahu Ben Haim, 58, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, New Jersey; Edmond Nahum, 56, of Deal Synagogue in Deal; Mordchai Fish, 56, of Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn; and Lavel Schwartz, 57, Fish's brother.
The rabbis were charged with laundering money that often was sent to Israel. They are members of the Syrian Jewish or Hasidic Jewish communities, Marra said at the news conference. Authorities issued a warrant for Schwartz's arrest. The other four rabbis were arrested yesterday and appeared in court.
"This case uncovered a web of corruption that spanned the state," Dun said. "All of the individuals were connected through their illicit activities with the undercover witness."
Kassin is accused of laundering more than $200,000 through Dwek from June 2007 through December 2008 by accepting "dirty checks" from him and exchanging them for "clean" checks, according to prosecutors.
'Asserts His Innocence'
"The rabbi asserts his innocence," said Kassin attorney Robert Stahl after U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Falk imposed a $200,000 bail bond. "It's a shame that he's caught up in some misunderstanding. Despite his difficult circumstances, he remains confident that the system of justice will prevail."
Falk imposed a $1.5 million bail bond and electronic monitoring on Ben Haim. His attorney, Michael O'Donnell, declined comment. Falk set a $700,000 bail bond on Nahum.
"He had no involvement in any scheme as alleged and certainly looks forward to the opportunity to clear his name," Nahum attorney Justin Walder said. "There's no profit, no involvement in any international scheme."
Nahum was implicated by "a person who obviously has his own problems and tried to limit his exposure" to criminal charges, Walder said.
Fish, Schwartz and two other defendants used a charitable, tax-exempt organization called BCG, which was associated with Fish's synagogue, to launder money by using money transfers, according to the FBI.
'Vindication'
"We are confident that the transfers referred to in the complaint will be explained to a jury in a manner that will result in Mr. Fish's vindication," said Michael Bachner, his attorney. He said Dwek "used his closeness and the sterling reputation of his family to manipulate individuals who believed that he would never be involved in illegal conduct."
Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, 58, of Brooklyn, was accused of conspiring with others to acquire and trade human organs for use in transplantation. Rosenbaum, who was "purportedly" involved in real estate, was approached by a cooperating witness and an undercover FBI agent about buying a human kidney from a human organ broker, according to the complaint.
Rosenbaum said it would cost $150,000, with half payable up front, according to the complaint. Rosenbaum said some of the money would go to the donor and some to doctors in Israel, according to the complaint.
'Illegal to Sell'
"One of the reasons it's so expensive is because you have to shmear (meaning pay various individuals for their assistance) all the time," according to the complaint. "It's illegal to buy. It's illegal to sell."
Attorneys for Rosenbaum and the other suspects either couldn't be identified or couldn't be reached for comment.
Prosecutors charged the men in a series of criminal complaints detailing the allegations. Ben Haim was accused of laundering $1.5 million through the undercover witness, who said he "was engaged in illegal businesses and schemes including bank fraud, trafficking in counterfeit goods and concealing assets and monies in connection with bankruptcy proceedings," according to an FBI criminal complaint.
Before his 2006 arrest, Dwek deposited two $25 million checks from another account of his, which had a zero balance, prosecutors alleged. Dwek then wired $22.8 million out of PNC, falsely assuring bank officials that he would forward funds to cover the overdraft, according to prosecutors.
$10 Million Bond
Dwek posted a $10 million bond, secured by $3 million in equity in the homes of his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Dwek was never indicted, instead receiving 17 extensions from a judge to continue the period in which his case had to be presented to a federal grand jury.
Michael Himmel and Christopher Porrino, lawyers for Dwek, didn't return calls or e-mails requesting comment.
More than 300 agents of the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service arrested the suspects and executed search warrants this morning, according to Dun.
Agents arrested 37 suspects yesterday, two surrendered, and three, including Smith, are expected to surrender tomorrow. Authorities issued arrest warrants for two other suspects.
Agents also searched the house of Joseph Doria, a former Democratic assemblyman and the commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs. He hasn't been charged. They also searched the offices of the president of St. Peter's College, a school in Jersey City, as well as a synagogue in Deal, Dun said.
"Any corruption is unacceptable -- anywhere, anytime, by anybody," New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat seeking re-election against Republican Christopher Christie, the former U.S. attorney in New Jersey, said in a statement.
'Cannot Be Tolerated'
"The scale of corruption we're seeing as this unfolds is simply outrageous and cannot be tolerated," Corzine said.
Doria resigned yesterday at Corzine's request, the governor's spokesman said.
The arrests yesterday emerged from an investigation that spans a decade and has led to two earlier roundups.
"New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the country," FBI supervising agent Ed Kahrer said. "Corruption is a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state and this great nation."
.
New Jersey Mayors, Five Rabbis Arrested in Corruption Probe
By David Voreacos
Last Updated: July 24, 2009 00:01 EDT
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- The mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus, New Jersey, and five rabbis were among 44 people charged by the U.S. with public corruption and money laundering. Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, 32, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, 64, and Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, 42, all Democrats; Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega Jr., 59; State Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, 44, a Republican from Ocean Township; and Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, a Jersey City Democrat, were charged yesterday in an FBI complaint. All except Smith appeared in U.S. court in Newark, New Jersey.
The corruption probe, based in Hudson County, netted many public officials accused of pledging assistance for bribes. A cooperating witness in that probe also infiltrated a "pre- existing money laundering network" that moved "at least tens of millions of dollars through charitable, nonprofit entities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey," according to a release by acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra.
"The fact that we arrested a number of rabbis this morning does not make this a religiously motivated investigation," Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's office in Newark, said at a news conference. "It is not a politically motivated investigation. It is about crime, corruption, arrogance and a shocking betrayal of public trust."
Cooperating Witness
The roundup of suspects is one of the largest ever in New Jersey, where more than 100 public officials have been convicted of corruption in the past few years. The cooperating witness laundered $3 million through the rabbis and also made bribe payments to public officials, prosecutors said. Investigators made hundreds of hours of audio and video recordings of illicit transactions, according to prosecutors.
The cooperating witness is Solomon Dwek, a real estate developer in Monmouth County, New Jersey, who was charged on May 11, 2006, with scheming to defraud PNC Bank out of $50 million, according to three people familiar with the matter. Dwek is a rabbi's son who was vice president of the Deal Yeshiva School in West Long Branch, New Jersey.
Cammarano, Hoboken's youngest mayor, was sworn in July 1. Former state Assemblyman Louis Manzo, 54, a Democrat from Jersey City, and Leona Beldini, a deputy mayor of Jersey City, also were charged. Cammarano attorney Joseph Hayden didn't immediately return a call seeking comment. Suarez lawyer Henry Klingeman said his client was innocent and wouldn't resign.
Five Rabbis
The rabbis are Saul Kassin, 87, chief rabbi of Sharee Zion, a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York; Eliahu Ben Haim, 58, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, New Jersey; Edmond Nahum, 56, of Deal Synagogue in Deal; Mordchai Fish, 56, of Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn; and Lavel Schwartz, 57, Fish's brother.
The rabbis were charged with laundering money that often was sent to Israel. They are members of the Syrian Jewish or Hasidic Jewish communities, Marra said at the news conference. Authorities issued a warrant for Schwartz's arrest. The other four rabbis were arrested yesterday and appeared in court.
"This case uncovered a web of corruption that spanned the state," Dun said. "All of the individuals were connected through their illicit activities with the undercover witness."
Kassin is accused of laundering more than $200,000 through Dwek from June 2007 through December 2008 by accepting "dirty checks" from him and exchanging them for "clean" checks, according to prosecutors.
'Asserts His Innocence'
"The rabbi asserts his innocence," said Kassin attorney Robert Stahl after U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Falk imposed a $200,000 bail bond. "It's a shame that he's caught up in some misunderstanding. Despite his difficult circumstances, he remains confident that the system of justice will prevail."
Falk imposed a $1.5 million bail bond and electronic monitoring on Ben Haim. His attorney, Michael O'Donnell, declined comment. Falk set a $700,000 bail bond on Nahum.
"He had no involvement in any scheme as alleged and certainly looks forward to the opportunity to clear his name," Nahum attorney Justin Walder said. "There's no profit, no involvement in any international scheme."
Nahum was implicated by "a person who obviously has his own problems and tried to limit his exposure" to criminal charges, Walder said.
Fish, Schwartz and two other defendants used a charitable, tax-exempt organization called BCG, which was associated with Fish's synagogue, to launder money by using money transfers, according to the FBI.
'Vindication'
"We are confident that the transfers referred to in the complaint will be explained to a jury in a manner that will result in Mr. Fish's vindication," said Michael Bachner, his attorney. He said Dwek "used his closeness and the sterling reputation of his family to manipulate individuals who believed that he would never be involved in illegal conduct."
Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, 58, of Brooklyn, was accused of conspiring with others to acquire and trade human organs for use in transplantation. Rosenbaum, who was "purportedly" involved in real estate, was approached by a cooperating witness and an undercover FBI agent about buying a human kidney from a human organ broker, according to the complaint.
Rosenbaum said it would cost $150,000, with half payable up front, according to the complaint. Rosenbaum said some of the money would go to the donor and some to doctors in Israel, according to the complaint.
'Illegal to Sell'
"One of the reasons it's so expensive is because you have to shmear (meaning pay various individuals for their assistance) all the time," according to the complaint. "It's illegal to buy. It's illegal to sell."
Attorneys for Rosenbaum and the other suspects either couldn't be identified or couldn't be reached for comment.
Prosecutors charged the men in a series of criminal complaints detailing the allegations. Ben Haim was accused of laundering $1.5 million through the undercover witness, who said he "was engaged in illegal businesses and schemes including bank fraud, trafficking in counterfeit goods and concealing assets and monies in connection with bankruptcy proceedings," according to an FBI criminal complaint.
Before his 2006 arrest, Dwek deposited two $25 million checks from another account of his, which had a zero balance, prosecutors alleged. Dwek then wired $22.8 million out of PNC, falsely assuring bank officials that he would forward funds to cover the overdraft, according to prosecutors.
$10 Million Bond
Dwek posted a $10 million bond, secured by $3 million in equity in the homes of his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Dwek was never indicted, instead receiving 17 extensions from a judge to continue the period in which his case had to be presented to a federal grand jury.
Michael Himmel and Christopher Porrino, lawyers for Dwek, didn't return calls or e-mails requesting comment.
More than 300 agents of the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service arrested the suspects and executed search warrants this morning, according to Dun.
Agents arrested 37 suspects yesterday, two surrendered, and three, including Smith, are expected to surrender tomorrow. Authorities issued arrest warrants for two other suspects.
Agents also searched the house of Joseph Doria, a former Democratic assemblyman and the commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs. He hasn't been charged. They also searched the offices of the president of St. Peter's College, a school in Jersey City, as well as a synagogue in Deal, Dun said.
"Any corruption is unacceptable -- anywhere, anytime, by anybody," New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat seeking re-election against Republican Christopher Christie, the former U.S. attorney in New Jersey, said in a statement.
'Cannot Be Tolerated'
"The scale of corruption we're seeing as this unfolds is simply outrageous and cannot be tolerated," Corzine said.
Doria resigned yesterday at Corzine's request, the governor's spokesman said.
The arrests yesterday emerged from an investigation that spans a decade and has led to two earlier roundups.
"New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the country," FBI supervising agent Ed Kahrer said. "Corruption is a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state and this great nation."
.
..."Agents also searched the house of Joseph Doria, a former Democratic assemblyman and the commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs. He hasn't been charged. They also searched the offices of the president of St. Peter's College, a school in Jersey City, as well as a synagogue in Deal, Dun said..."
What an unlucky academic position!
QUOTE
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...751C1A9609C8B63
Rev. James Loughran, 66, College Leader
Published: December 28, 2006
The Rev. James N. Loughran, president of St. Peter's College since 1995, was found dead Sunday morning after an accidental fall. He was 66.
Father Loughran was discovered at the base of a staircase in his campus residence here after friends said he had missed an appointment. The regional medical examiner ruled the death accidental and said it was caused by an impact to his head and neck, said the Hudson County prosecutor, Edward J. De Fazio...
Rev. James Loughran, 66, College Leader
Published: December 28, 2006
The Rev. James N. Loughran, president of St. Peter's College since 1995, was found dead Sunday morning after an accidental fall. He was 66.
Father Loughran was discovered at the base of a staircase in his campus residence here after friends said he had missed an appointment. The regional medical examiner ruled the death accidental and said it was caused by an impact to his head and neck, said the Hudson County prosecutor, Edward J. De Fazio...
QUOTE
http://blog.synthesis.net/2009/07/23/oy-ve...abbis-arrested/
Money laundering:
Money laundering:
The rabbis were Saul Kassin, 87, chief rabbi of Sharee Zion, a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York; Eliahu Ben Haim, 58, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, New Jersey; Edmond Nahum, 56, of Deal Synagogue in Deal; Mordchai Fish, 56, of Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn; and Lavel Schwartz, 57, Fish's brother.and trafficking in human organs:
The rabbis were charged with laundering money that often was sent to Israel. They are members of the Syrian Jewish or Hasidic Jewish communities, Marra said at the news conference. Authorities issued a warrant for Schwartz's arrest. The other four rabbis were arrested today and appeared in court.
"This case uncovered a web of corruption that spanned the state," Dun said. "All of the individuals were connected through their illicit activities with the undercover witness."
Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, 58, of Brooklyn, was accused of conspiring with others to acquire and trade human organs for use in transplantation. Rosenbaum, who was "purportedly" involved in real estate, was approached by a cooperating witness and an undercover FBI agent about buying a human kidney from a human organ broker, according to the complaint.
Rosenbaum said it would cost $150,000, with half payable up front, according to the complaint. Rosenbaum said some of the money would go to the donor and some to doctors in Israel, according to the complaint.
.
QUOTE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bid_Rig
...Rabbi Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn was alleged to have been conspiring to arrange the sale of an Israeli citizen's kidney for $160,000. According to the complaint, Rosenbaum had said that he had been involved in the illegal sale of kidneys for 10 years. Acting US Attorney Ralph Marra said "His business was to entice vulnerable people to give up a kidney for $10,000 which he would turn around and sell for $160,000". Anthropologist and organ trade expert Nancy Scheper-Hughes claimed that she had informed the FBI that Rosenbaum was "a major figure" in international organ smuggling 7 years ago, and that many of Rosenbaum's donors had come from Eastern Europe. She also heard reports that Rosenbaum held donors at gunpoint to ensure they donated their organs.
.
...Rabbi Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn was alleged to have been conspiring to arrange the sale of an Israeli citizen's kidney for $160,000. According to the complaint, Rosenbaum had said that he had been involved in the illegal sale of kidneys for 10 years. Acting US Attorney Ralph Marra said "His business was to entice vulnerable people to give up a kidney for $10,000 which he would turn around and sell for $160,000". Anthropologist and organ trade expert Nancy Scheper-Hughes claimed that she had informed the FBI that Rosenbaum was "a major figure" in international organ smuggling 7 years ago, and that many of Rosenbaum's donors had come from Eastern Europe. She also heard reports that Rosenbaum held donors at gunpoint to ensure they donated their organs.
.
QUOTE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Scheper-Hughes
Nancy Scheper-Hughes (born in New York City in 1944) is a professor of Anthropology and director of the program in Medical Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. [1]
Scheper-Hughes investigated an international ring of organ sellers based in New York, New Jersey and Israel. She interviewed several hundred third-world organ donors, and reported that they all felt that they had been taken advantage of, and were often left sick, unable to work, and unable to get medical care. Some of them were tricked into donating organs, and threatened at gunpoint when they tried to resist. Some transplants took place at major New York City hospitals, and Scheper-Hughes said that the hospital personnel knew illegal transplants were taking place. She informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which led to arrests several years later.[2][3]
She is known for her writing on the anthropology of the body, hunger, illness, medicine, psychiatry, madness, social suffering, violence and genocide. Scheper-Hughes served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil in the 1960s.
Besides her own original research she has helped disseminate the work of scholars such as radical Italian psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, and the Brazilian physician and radical ecologist Josué de Castro, to a wider North American audience.
One of the central themes unifying Scheper-Hughes's scholarship is how violence comes to mark the bodies of the vulnerable, poor, and disenfranchised with a terrifying intimacy. Her work in Latin America, South Africa, Ireland, and Eastern Europe traces the insidious invisibility of everyday violence, which often makes the vulnerable and exploited into their own wardens and executioners.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes was awarded the first Berkeley William Sloane Coffin Jr. Award [4] in April 2007. The award recognizes moral leadership among members of the community at University of California, Berkeley. The award is named for William Sloane Coffin , a chaplain at Yale University, and an activist in the civil rights and peace movements.
.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes (born in New York City in 1944) is a professor of Anthropology and director of the program in Medical Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. [1]
Scheper-Hughes investigated an international ring of organ sellers based in New York, New Jersey and Israel. She interviewed several hundred third-world organ donors, and reported that they all felt that they had been taken advantage of, and were often left sick, unable to work, and unable to get medical care. Some of them were tricked into donating organs, and threatened at gunpoint when they tried to resist. Some transplants took place at major New York City hospitals, and Scheper-Hughes said that the hospital personnel knew illegal transplants were taking place. She informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which led to arrests several years later.[2][3]
She is known for her writing on the anthropology of the body, hunger, illness, medicine, psychiatry, madness, social suffering, violence and genocide. Scheper-Hughes served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil in the 1960s.
Besides her own original research she has helped disseminate the work of scholars such as radical Italian psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, and the Brazilian physician and radical ecologist Josué de Castro, to a wider North American audience.
One of the central themes unifying Scheper-Hughes's scholarship is how violence comes to mark the bodies of the vulnerable, poor, and disenfranchised with a terrifying intimacy. Her work in Latin America, South Africa, Ireland, and Eastern Europe traces the insidious invisibility of everyday violence, which often makes the vulnerable and exploited into their own wardens and executioners.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes was awarded the first Berkeley William Sloane Coffin Jr. Award [4] in April 2007. The award recognizes moral leadership among members of the community at University of California, Berkeley. The award is named for William Sloane Coffin , a chaplain at Yale University, and an activist in the civil rights and peace movements.
.
I've heard of Saint Peter's University Hospital, but don't know whether it's related to Saint Peter's College (president's office raid mentioned above).
According to Wikipedia, famous Saint Peter's College grads are:
According to Wikipedia, famous Saint Peter's College grads are:
QUOTE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter&#...ege_(New_Jersey)
Lawrence R. Codey, New Jersey businessman and cousin of former New Jersey acting governor Richard Codey.
Joseph V. Doria, Jr., Former mayor of Bayonne, New Jersey, former New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.[7]
William J. Marino, President & CEO, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey.
Bob Menendez, Junior Senator from New Jersey
.
Lawrence R. Codey, New Jersey businessman and cousin of former New Jersey acting governor Richard Codey.
Joseph V. Doria, Jr., Former mayor of Bayonne, New Jersey, former New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.[7]
William J. Marino, President & CEO, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey.
Bob Menendez, Junior Senator from New Jersey
.
(Broken link fixed here)
I've heard of Saint Peter's University Hospital,
http://www.saintpetersuh.com/AboutUs/
SAINT PETER'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
A MEMBER OF SAINT PETER'S HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
but don't know whether it's related to Saint Peter's College (president's office raid mentioned above).
According to Wikipedia, powerful Saint Peter's College grads include:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter&#...ge_(New_Jersey)
Lawrence R. Codey, New Jersey businessman and cousin of former New Jersey acting governor Richard Codey.
Joseph V. Doria, Jr., Former mayor of Bayonne, New Jersey, former New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.[7]
William J. Marino, President & CEO, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey.
Bob Menendez, Junior Senator from New Jersey
.
I've heard of Saint Peter's University Hospital,
http://www.saintpetersuh.com/AboutUs/
SAINT PETER'S UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
A MEMBER OF SAINT PETER'S HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
but don't know whether it's related to Saint Peter's College (president's office raid mentioned above).
According to Wikipedia, powerful Saint Peter's College grads include:
QUOTE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter&#...ge_(New_Jersey)
Lawrence R. Codey, New Jersey businessman and cousin of former New Jersey acting governor Richard Codey.
Joseph V. Doria, Jr., Former mayor of Bayonne, New Jersey, former New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.[7]
William J. Marino, President & CEO, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey.
Bob Menendez, Junior Senator from New Jersey
.
hmmmm very suspicious
accidental fall (after being pushed perhaps???)
QUOTE
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...751C1A9609C8B63
Rev. James Loughran, 66, College Leader
Published: December 28, 2006
The Rev. James N. Loughran, president of St. Peter's College since 1995, was found dead Sunday morning after an accidental fall. He was 66.
Father Loughran was discovered at the base of a staircase in his campus residence here after friends said he had missed an appointment. The regional medical examiner ruled the death accidental and said it was caused by an impact to his head and neck, said the Hudson County prosecutor, Edward J. De Fazio...
accidental fall (after being pushed perhaps???)
QUOTE
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...751C1A9609C8B63
Rev. James Loughran, 66, College Leader
Published: December 28, 2006
The Rev. James N. Loughran, president of St. Peter's College since 1995, was found dead Sunday morning after an accidental fall. He was 66.
Father Loughran was discovered at the base of a staircase in his campus residence here after friends said he had missed an appointment. The regional medical examiner ruled the death accidental and said it was caused by an impact to his head and neck, said the Hudson County prosecutor, Edward J. De Fazio...
If these were Muslim Clerics the media would give it the same amount of coverage, right?
QUOTE
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2...k_pays_off.html
Anthropologist's 'Dick Tracy moment' plays role in arrest of suspected kidney trafficker
Friday, July 24th 2009, 1:45 AM
Levy Rosenbaum was brought to the FBI's attention by anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes (below) in 2002.
The Brooklyn man arrested Thursday for dealing in black-market kidneys was identified to the FBI seven years ago as a major figure in a global human organ ring.
Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum's name, address and even phone number were passed to an FBI agent in a meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan by a prominent anthropologist who has been studying and documenting organ trafficking for more than a decade.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes of the University of California, Berkeley, was and is very clear as to Rosenbaum's role in the ring.
"He is the main U.S. broker for an international trafficking network," she said.
Her sources include a man who started working with Rosenbaum imagining he was helping people in desperate need. The man then began to see the donors, or to be more accurate, sellers, who were flown in from impoverished countries such as Moldova.
"He said it was awful. These people would be brought in and they didn't even know what they were supposed to be doing and they would want to go home and they would cry," Scheper-Hughes said.
The man called Rosenbaum "a thug" who would pull out a pistol he was apparently licensed to carry and tell the sellers, "You're here. A deal is a deal. Now, you'll give us a kidney or you'll never go home.' "
Scheper-Hughes felt she had to stop Rosenbaum. She met with the FBI.
"I always thought of it as my Dick Tracy moment," she said Thursday.
She waited and waited for something to be done. The FBI may have been following the lead of the State Department, which dismissed organ trafficking as "urban legend."
"It would be impossible to conceal a clandestine organ trafficking ring," a 2004 State Department report stated.
Scheper-Hughes had better luck in Brazil and in South Africa, where law enforcement corroborated her findings and acted decisively.
But the ring kept operating elsewhere. Scheper-Hughes visited villages in Moldova where, "20% of the men were siphoned off to be kidney sellers in this same scheme."
Back in Brooklyn, Rosenbaum stayed busy. He was contacted by an FBI informant who introduced Rosenbaum to an undercover agent who supposedly wanted to buy a kidney for her uncle.
"I'm doing this a long time," Rosenbaum was recorded saying.
The undercover asked how many organs he had sold.
"Quite a lot," he answered.
On Wednesday, the FBI called Scheper-Hughes, who is putting her findings into the upcoming, "A World Cut in Two, The Global Traffic in Humans for Organs."
"Why are you calling me now?" she asked.
Thursday, seven years after her Dick Tracy moment with the FBI at the Roosevelt Hotel, Rosenbaum was finally arrested.
.
Anthropologist's 'Dick Tracy moment' plays role in arrest of suspected kidney trafficker
Friday, July 24th 2009, 1:45 AM
Levy Rosenbaum was brought to the FBI's attention by anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes (below) in 2002.
The Brooklyn man arrested Thursday for dealing in black-market kidneys was identified to the FBI seven years ago as a major figure in a global human organ ring.
Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum's name, address and even phone number were passed to an FBI agent in a meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan by a prominent anthropologist who has been studying and documenting organ trafficking for more than a decade.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes of the University of California, Berkeley, was and is very clear as to Rosenbaum's role in the ring.
"He is the main U.S. broker for an international trafficking network," she said.
Her sources include a man who started working with Rosenbaum imagining he was helping people in desperate need. The man then began to see the donors, or to be more accurate, sellers, who were flown in from impoverished countries such as Moldova.
"He said it was awful. These people would be brought in and they didn't even know what they were supposed to be doing and they would want to go home and they would cry," Scheper-Hughes said.
The man called Rosenbaum "a thug" who would pull out a pistol he was apparently licensed to carry and tell the sellers, "You're here. A deal is a deal. Now, you'll give us a kidney or you'll never go home.' "
Scheper-Hughes felt she had to stop Rosenbaum. She met with the FBI.
"I always thought of it as my Dick Tracy moment," she said Thursday.
She waited and waited for something to be done. The FBI may have been following the lead of the State Department, which dismissed organ trafficking as "urban legend."
"It would be impossible to conceal a clandestine organ trafficking ring," a 2004 State Department report stated.
Scheper-Hughes had better luck in Brazil and in South Africa, where law enforcement corroborated her findings and acted decisively.
But the ring kept operating elsewhere. Scheper-Hughes visited villages in Moldova where, "20% of the men were siphoned off to be kidney sellers in this same scheme."
Back in Brooklyn, Rosenbaum stayed busy. He was contacted by an FBI informant who introduced Rosenbaum to an undercover agent who supposedly wanted to buy a kidney for her uncle.
"I'm doing this a long time," Rosenbaum was recorded saying.
The undercover asked how many organs he had sold.
"Quite a lot," he answered.
On Wednesday, the FBI called Scheper-Hughes, who is putting her findings into the upcoming, "A World Cut in Two, The Global Traffic in Humans for Organs."
"Why are you calling me now?" she asked.
Thursday, seven years after her Dick Tracy moment with the FBI at the Roosevelt Hotel, Rosenbaum was finally arrested.
.
what would be great is, if a connection with the Bushfamily could be found
obviously, the gov't didn't want to do something during Bush's term
SO
that means they might have been in on it with AIPAC and all
keep digging...
they got Al Capone for Taxes
imagine getting 41 for Kidney's? (it couldn't be hearts as the Bush's don't have them or deal in hearts).
keep digging...
it's odd things like this that got Al Capone
obviously, the gov't didn't want to do something during Bush's term
SO
that means they might have been in on it with AIPAC and all
keep digging...
they got Al Capone for Taxes
imagine getting 41 for Kidney's? (it couldn't be hearts as the Bush's don't have them or deal in hearts).
keep digging...
it's odd things like this that got Al Capone
QUOTE
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2...k_pays_off.html
She waited and waited for something to be done. The FBI may have been following the lead of the State Department, which dismissed organ trafficking as "urban legend."
"It would be impossible to conceal a clandestine organ trafficking ring," a 2004 State Department report stated.
.
She waited and waited for something to be done. The FBI may have been following the lead of the State Department, which dismissed organ trafficking as "urban legend."
"It would be impossible to conceal a clandestine organ trafficking ring," a 2004 State Department report stated.
.
Kinda makes you wonder whether this will end like the devastating arms trafficking film, LORD OF WAR. That would be sickening, but would help explain the obtuseness of the remarks above. And what else is impossible but going down big time?
http://www.lordofwarthemovie.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d0d6qgsvTw...feature=related
Opening Credits - LORD OF WAR
the very much rumored and hinted sex slave ring with kids, especially boys for the last 28 years or so from THE FAMILY
tons of googles on that
tons of googles on that
No, I wasn't suggesting that specific narrow allegation and, within that context, I wouldn't overgeneralize like you do. In fact, George W Bush was strong on this issue and signed legislation he could've vetoed (see below). Moreover, AG Alberto Gonzalez was doing great work on this before he was forced to resign; it could've been related. Chris Christie and his Brooklyn counterpart submitted letters of resignation to Mukasey days apart (same week Mukasey collapsed during a DC speech - check the Wall Street Journal for corroboration; I don't have the time). I remember because I thought it was odd at the time and, as you know, I like Christie's work a lot.
The idea that illicit activities (cumulatively generating billions of dollars) proceed unchecked by accident, except for token interventions, staggers the mind.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8112100905.html
The idea that illicit activities (cumulatively generating billions of dollars) proceed unchecked by accident, except for token interventions, staggers the mind.
QUOTE
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov...20081013-5.html
Statement by Press Secretary Dana Perino
On Monday, October 13, 2008, the President signed the following bills into law:
S. 1738, the "PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008," which requires the Department of Justice to create and implement a National Strategy for Child Exploitation, Prevention, and Interdiction; statutorily establishes the existing Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program; and makes other amendments to Federal child pornography laws.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.1738:
Protect Our Children Act of 2008 (HR 3845/S 1738)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_Act_of_2003
The act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on April 30, 2003.[8]
.
Statement by Press Secretary Dana Perino
On Monday, October 13, 2008, the President signed the following bills into law:
S. 1738, the "PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008," which requires the Department of Justice to create and implement a National Strategy for Child Exploitation, Prevention, and Interdiction; statutorily establishes the existing Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program; and makes other amendments to Federal child pornography laws.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.1738:
Protect Our Children Act of 2008 (HR 3845/S 1738)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_Act_of_2003
The act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on April 30, 2003.[8]
.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8112100905.html
and here I thought the thread might be about the real money laundering, to the tune of TRILLIONS, being done by the FED....
QUOTE(NiteOwl @ Jul 28 2009, 11:49 AM)
and here I thought the thread might be about the real money laundering, to the tune of TRILLIONS, being done by the FED....
.
.
True, some consider that corruption on a whole different scale... but it's abstract and almost beyond comprehension. Besides isn't that claim incompatible with supporting Obama?
Unrelated - links for my previous post (first links I could find in a rush on the subject just so it's not all recall, although I read all articles originally in the WSJ):
Late October 2008, WSJ reports Mukasey declines wire-tap requests.
QUOTE
http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/long..._who_knows.html
The stories this morning recounting a fight between NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and Attorney General Michael Mukasey over warrants for terror-related surveillance sound important, but it's hard to know what to make of them.The actual, leaked correspondence between the two is here. Apparently, Kelly thinks the Justice Department should have cleared some warrants the NYPD wanted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and Mukasey thinks the requests were insufficiently supported and illegal.
On balance, it looks like Kelly leaked the stuff to try to pressure the feds -- that's the obvious motive, and the story looks to have originated in NY. But even if you read the letters, you can't tell who's right. It sounds like Kelly wants Justice to take some warrants that might be kind of legally marginal to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on the off chance that they might get lucky and get a warrant that shouldn't really be issued, and Mukasey thinks DoJ would lose credibility and have problems with more important warrants if it did that.
Without the particular facts of the particular cases, you can't reach an actual, reasoned judgment. But the idea doesn't seem to be reasoned judgment. The idea seems to be that whoever leaked it -- probably Kelly -- wants an emotional public reaction to bully the bureaucracy. Kelly wants you to think it's pointy-head bureaucrats getting in the way of tough, no-nonsense law enforcers like him. Mukasey wants you to think it's rogue local cops who think the law should take a vacation when they incant "terrorism."
Enter Pete King, the LI congressman who always seems to be able to spare time from his LI constitutents' business to provide a shoot-from-the-hip quote. He works his way into both the Associated Press and Wall Street Journal, somewhat predictably taking Kelly's side and accusing the Bush administration -- !!!! -- of being too fastidious:
"New York has to do what it has to do to survive, and it just appears that the FBI or the Justice Department are throwing too many roadblocks in the way of the NYPD.....I'd rather have the Justice Department listen to Ray Kelly more often rather than be afraid of getting shot down in court."
Frequently, of course, statutes do put roadblocks in the way of cops to protect innocent people from being wiretapped. That's a good thing. And "listening to Ray Kelly more" is not a concept of statutory interpretation that we're familiar with.
In these particular cases, King gives no particular evidence of knowing the facts of the cases or the applicable law or how the two mesh, which is all that matters.
So, how about just calling on the Justice Department to follow the law. Isn't that good enough?
The stories this morning recounting a fight between NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and Attorney General Michael Mukasey over warrants for terror-related surveillance sound important, but it's hard to know what to make of them.The actual, leaked correspondence between the two is here. Apparently, Kelly thinks the Justice Department should have cleared some warrants the NYPD wanted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and Mukasey thinks the requests were insufficiently supported and illegal.
On balance, it looks like Kelly leaked the stuff to try to pressure the feds -- that's the obvious motive, and the story looks to have originated in NY. But even if you read the letters, you can't tell who's right. It sounds like Kelly wants Justice to take some warrants that might be kind of legally marginal to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on the off chance that they might get lucky and get a warrant that shouldn't really be issued, and Mukasey thinks DoJ would lose credibility and have problems with more important warrants if it did that.
Without the particular facts of the particular cases, you can't reach an actual, reasoned judgment. But the idea doesn't seem to be reasoned judgment. The idea seems to be that whoever leaked it -- probably Kelly -- wants an emotional public reaction to bully the bureaucracy. Kelly wants you to think it's pointy-head bureaucrats getting in the way of tough, no-nonsense law enforcers like him. Mukasey wants you to think it's rogue local cops who think the law should take a vacation when they incant "terrorism."
Enter Pete King, the LI congressman who always seems to be able to spare time from his LI constitutents' business to provide a shoot-from-the-hip quote. He works his way into both the Associated Press and Wall Street Journal, somewhat predictably taking Kelly's side and accusing the Bush administration -- !!!! -- of being too fastidious:
"New York has to do what it has to do to survive, and it just appears that the FBI or the Justice Department are throwing too many roadblocks in the way of the NYPD.....I'd rather have the Justice Department listen to Ray Kelly more often rather than be afraid of getting shot down in court."
Frequently, of course, statutes do put roadblocks in the way of cops to protect innocent people from being wiretapped. That's a good thing. And "listening to Ray Kelly more" is not a concept of statutory interpretation that we're familiar with.
In these particular cases, King gives no particular evidence of knowing the facts of the cases or the applicable law or how the two mesh, which is all that matters.
So, how about just calling on the Justice Department to follow the law. Isn't that good enough?
then Nov 17, 2008 - Dual Resignations (NJ's Christie, Brooklyn's Garcia)
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/n...or_leaving.html
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/u...her_christ.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/washingt...0terror.html?em
November 19, 2008 NYT
and Nov 22 - Mukasey Fainting
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8112100905.html
Intriguing timeline, maybe it's nothing. Wouldn't you love to know the real story?
QUOTE
True, some consider that corruption on a whole different scale... but it's abstract and almost beyond comprehension. Besides isn't that claim incompatible with supporting Obama?
How so ?
The vast majority of the estimated $ 4 Trillion to $ 9 Trillion disappeared years ago (mostly during the Bush Administration). Any President inherits this blackhole of financial fraud and money laundering... a great deal of which is suspected to be black op defense contracts that aren't known to many. God only knows where it has all gone... well God, Greenspan, Bernanke, Geithner and other NY FED members. It is generally thought to be the NY FED that has been the government's laundry.
So what is a President to do to change this ?
Who pulls the strings ?
Who shot JFK ? or should I say who had JFK shot ?
Who's next ?
I thought you were jokingly referring to TARP. We're not talking about the same activity. Doesn't money laundering hide funds obtained through illicit/illegal activities by converting it into cash which appears to have a legitimate source? Apples and oranges, your post and mine, huh.
QUOTE(NiteOwl @ Jul 28 2009, 12:21 PM)
QUOTE
True, some consider that corruption on a whole different scale... but it's abstract and almost beyond comprehension. Besides isn't that claim incompatible with supporting Obama?
How so ?
The vast majority of the estimated $ 4 Trillion to $ 9 Trillion disappeared years ago (mostly during the Bush Administration). Any President inherits this blackhole of financial fraud and money laundering... a great deal of which is suspected to be black op defense contracts that aren't known to many. God only knows where it has all gone... well God, Greenspan, Bernanke, Geithner and other NY FED members. It is generally thought to be the NY FED that has been the government's laundry.
So what is a President to do to change this ?
Who pulls the strings ?
Who shot JFK ? or should I say who had JFK shot ?
Who's next ?
So what's a President to do? Appoint the head of the NY Fed to head his Treasury Department ofcourse...
QUOTE(believe_it @ Jul 28 2009, 02:23 PM)
I thought you were jokingly referring to TARP. We're not talking about the same activity. Doesn't money laundering hide funds obtained through illicit/illegal activities by converting it into cash which appears to have a legitimate source? Apples and oranges, your post and mine, huh.
Maybe.... if you toss out all the illicit money taken in by the government which is not on the books either.
It's a blackhole on both sides... the government slush fund.
and no.... this was not really addressing the topic of this thread. It was kind of tongue-in-cheek... and kind of not.
QUOTE(rla @ Jul 28 2009, 02:39 PM)
So what's a President to do? Appoint the head of the NY Fed to head his Treasury Department ofcourse...
Geithner knows all... so the President doesn't have to (for his own good).
Ignorance is bliss... sometimes its better to not know....
QUOTE(NiteOwl @ Jul 28 2009, 03:18 PM)
Ignorance is bliss... sometimes its better to not know....
.
.
Are you kidding? You're suggesting a learned helplessness response here? Let crime reign, SARCASM, or as in The Who song (with several choice words changed), 'Crime Reign O'er Us'? Politicians with that view should stay out of office. I know I'll never support or vote for anyone like that more than once, and I'm thankful there are good people everywhere who share my standards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeLEo318Yec
The Who with David Gilmour - Love Reign O'er Me
June 29,1996
London, Hyde Park
I am surprised you are not interested in the alleged sex slave scandals that while you may say urban legend, then so was selling Kidney's and body parts
This scandal might indeed be the oddity that eventually has people ratting out people
Are you saying Mulkasey was good and taken out?
and if Obama doesn't appoint people who are "ins" then he would be accused of appointing people not qualified
Whether it works or not, the market is higher than it was before Obama took office, and housing prices are now UP for the first time in 3 years in some
15 of 20 biggest states
sounds like it is working
And having the kidney selling scandal come out now, when the Bushies hid it, well, isn't that self-evident?
If Christie wins the NJ Gov. it is NOT because of chrisite winning. It will be anti-incumbent fever and corzine himself losing
And the public is angry as all hell, and it seems, if people get a challenger, the challenger will have the advantage now the next few years no matter which party is in office
This scandal might indeed be the oddity that eventually has people ratting out people
Are you saying Mulkasey was good and taken out?
and if Obama doesn't appoint people who are "ins" then he would be accused of appointing people not qualified
Whether it works or not, the market is higher than it was before Obama took office, and housing prices are now UP for the first time in 3 years in some
15 of 20 biggest states
sounds like it is working
And having the kidney selling scandal come out now, when the Bushies hid it, well, isn't that self-evident?
If Christie wins the NJ Gov. it is NOT because of chrisite winning. It will be anti-incumbent fever and corzine himself losing
And the public is angry as all hell, and it seems, if people get a challenger, the challenger will have the advantage now the next few years no matter which party is in office
QUOTE(believe_it @ Jul 28 2009, 06:23 PM)
QUOTE(NiteOwl @ Jul 28 2009, 03:18 PM)
Ignorance is bliss... sometimes its better to not know....
.
.
Are you kidding? You're suggesting a learned helplessness response here? Let crime reign, SARCASM, or as in The Who song (with several choice words changed), 'Crime Reign O'er Us'? Politicians with that view should stay out of office. I know I'll never support or vote for anyone like that more than once, and I'm thankful there are good people everywhere who share my standards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeLEo318Yec
The Who with David Gilmour - Love Reign O'er Me
June 29,1996
London, Hyde Park
You have to take my comment in the manner it was meant...
In this circle, those who know too much are either on the inside.... or they don't live too long. (Hotel California lyrics come to mind here "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave")
The other issue is that in many cases they want to maintain plausible deniability. So some people don't know what they don't need to know on purpose.
my oh my
it's starting up
what was he going to blab...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/28/j...j_n_246633.html
Jack Shaw, Player In New Jersey Corruption Scandal, Found Dead
First Posted: 07-28-09 07:16 PM | Updated: 07-28-09 08:52 PM
Jack Shaw, a key figure in last Thursday's giant New Jersey corruption scandal, has been found dead in his apartment. The Jersey Journal is reporting that a "relative found the 61-year-old political consultant's body," and that "homicide investigators as well as the regular police contingent responded."
Meanwhile NBC New York reports that Shaw "was found with a bottle of pills next to his body... However it is not clear yet if he suffered a heart attack or may have committed suicide."
Shaw was accused of taking $10,000 in bribes and "charged with conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right."
it's starting up
what was he going to blab...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/28/j...j_n_246633.html
Jack Shaw, Player In New Jersey Corruption Scandal, Found Dead
First Posted: 07-28-09 07:16 PM | Updated: 07-28-09 08:52 PM
Jack Shaw, a key figure in last Thursday's giant New Jersey corruption scandal, has been found dead in his apartment. The Jersey Journal is reporting that a "relative found the 61-year-old political consultant's body," and that "homicide investigators as well as the regular police contingent responded."
Meanwhile NBC New York reports that Shaw "was found with a bottle of pills next to his body... However it is not clear yet if he suffered a heart attack or may have committed suicide."
Shaw was accused of taking $10,000 in bribes and "charged with conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right."
QUOTE
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/j...bi_informa.html
Joe Doria met with FBI informant Dwek, political consultant Jack Shaw
by Chris Megerian/Statehouse Bureau
Thursday July 30, 2009, 2:35 PM
TRENTON -- Joseph Doria, the Department of Community Affairs commissioner who resigned last week after his home and office were searched by authorities, met with federal informant Solomon Dwek and deceased political consultant Jack Shaw, Doria's lawyer confirmed today.
The lawyer, John Azzarello, would not comment on when the meeting occurred or what was discussed. But he insisted Doria, who has not been charged, did not break any laws.
Patti Sapone/The Star-Ledger
Former Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria in April at the Statehouse. Doria, who resigned last week after his house and office was searched by authorities, met with FBI informant Solomon Dwek and deceased political consultant Jack Shaw.
Massive New Jersey corruption probe snares officials, rabbis
"He didn't take a nickel from either one of them," Azzarello said. "We just have to let time pass until it becomes obvious."
Shaw was accused of taking $10,000 from Dwek during a federal sting operation that netted 44 people last week. Bloomberg News, citing an unnamed source, , reported today that the FBI recorded Shaw discussing payments to Doria and St. Peter's College, where Doria is an alumni and a trustee.
Shaw died Tuesday, and authorities have ruled out foul play but are investigating the possibility of suicide. Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said toxicology tests could take weeks.
Doria served as Bayonne mayor and spent 27 years in the state Legislature before becoming DCA commissioner in October 2007.
Federal authorities have not said what they were searching for in his home or office. They also searched the office of the St. Peter's College president.
Joe Doria met with FBI informant Dwek, political consultant Jack Shaw
by Chris Megerian/Statehouse Bureau
Thursday July 30, 2009, 2:35 PM
TRENTON -- Joseph Doria, the Department of Community Affairs commissioner who resigned last week after his home and office were searched by authorities, met with federal informant Solomon Dwek and deceased political consultant Jack Shaw, Doria's lawyer confirmed today.
The lawyer, John Azzarello, would not comment on when the meeting occurred or what was discussed. But he insisted Doria, who has not been charged, did not break any laws.
Patti Sapone/The Star-Ledger
Former Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria in April at the Statehouse. Doria, who resigned last week after his house and office was searched by authorities, met with FBI informant Solomon Dwek and deceased political consultant Jack Shaw.
Massive New Jersey corruption probe snares officials, rabbis
"He didn't take a nickel from either one of them," Azzarello said. "We just have to let time pass until it becomes obvious."
Shaw was accused of taking $10,000 from Dwek during a federal sting operation that netted 44 people last week. Bloomberg News, citing an unnamed source, , reported today that the FBI recorded Shaw discussing payments to Doria and St. Peter's College, where Doria is an alumni and a trustee.
Shaw died Tuesday, and authorities have ruled out foul play but are investigating the possibility of suicide. Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said toxicology tests could take weeks.
Doria served as Bayonne mayor and spent 27 years in the state Legislature before becoming DCA commissioner in October 2007.
Federal authorities have not said what they were searching for in his home or office. They also searched the office of the St. Peter's College president.
QUOTE
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/h...ammarano_2.html
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano will resign after N.J. corruption sting arrest
by Josh Margolin and Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
Thursday July 30, 2009, 2:52 PM
HOBOKEN -- Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, battered by charges in the N.J. corruption scandal, is expected to announce his resignation Friday, Gov. Jon Corzine said today during an event in Montclair.
Corzine said attorneys from the governor's office had been speaking with Cammarano's lawyers and the mayor's resignation is expected Friday morning. Corzine has called for all public officials charged in the sweeping FBI probe to resign.
Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III was one of many people brought to FBI Headquarters in Newark after an being taken into custody Thursday. He will resign from office Friday
.Full Star-Ledger coverage of the New Jersey corruption arrests
Cammarano's lawyer Joseph Haydan, however, said this afternoon that his client may step down Friday, but no final decision has been made. Hayden acknowledged the 32-year-old mayor is strongly considering resigning out of a concern the storm of publicity over his arrest has "interfered with his ability to run the city."
"He is concerned with the fact that the publicity about this case has become a distraction to him and a distraction to the functioning of government," the lawyer said. "He will decide by tomorrow."
Angry residents gathered in the rain at City Hall in Hoboken Monday night, demanding Mayor Peter Cammarano leave office.
Hayden said it had not yet been determined how Cammarano will announce his decision, whether a press conference or statement or some other means. He said his client maintains his innocence in the case.
Joseph Garcia, a Columbia Law School-educated attorney, quit his position Tuesday as Cammarano's chief-of-staff. Last Friday, Mayor Peter Cammarano had said he would not resign and planned to continue running the city.
Cammarano was one of 44 people charged in the massive sting, a two-track investigation focusing on corruption among public officials and international money-laundering by rabbis and others in the Syrian Jewish community. A single informant, the son of a Syrian Jewish rabbi, laid the groundwork for the arrests after he was caught in a scheme to defraud PNC Bank of $50 million.
Cammaraon is charged with taking $25,000 in bribes from the informant.
Also charged in the case were the mayors of Ridgefield and Secaucus, several elected and appointed officials in Jersey City and a pair of state assemblyman. Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, who was also charged in the corruption probe, resigned from office on Tuesday.
Previously a Hoboken councilman, Cammarano is also an attorney who specializes in election law. The 32-year-old is the youngest mayor Hoboken has had.
PROFILE: FBI says Hoboken's new mayor employed old school political tactics
.
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano will resign after N.J. corruption sting arrest
by Josh Margolin and Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
Thursday July 30, 2009, 2:52 PM
HOBOKEN -- Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, battered by charges in the N.J. corruption scandal, is expected to announce his resignation Friday, Gov. Jon Corzine said today during an event in Montclair.
Corzine said attorneys from the governor's office had been speaking with Cammarano's lawyers and the mayor's resignation is expected Friday morning. Corzine has called for all public officials charged in the sweeping FBI probe to resign.
Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III was one of many people brought to FBI Headquarters in Newark after an being taken into custody Thursday. He will resign from office Friday
.Full Star-Ledger coverage of the New Jersey corruption arrests
Cammarano's lawyer Joseph Haydan, however, said this afternoon that his client may step down Friday, but no final decision has been made. Hayden acknowledged the 32-year-old mayor is strongly considering resigning out of a concern the storm of publicity over his arrest has "interfered with his ability to run the city."
"He is concerned with the fact that the publicity about this case has become a distraction to him and a distraction to the functioning of government," the lawyer said. "He will decide by tomorrow."
Angry residents gathered in the rain at City Hall in Hoboken Monday night, demanding Mayor Peter Cammarano leave office.
Hayden said it had not yet been determined how Cammarano will announce his decision, whether a press conference or statement or some other means. He said his client maintains his innocence in the case.
Joseph Garcia, a Columbia Law School-educated attorney, quit his position Tuesday as Cammarano's chief-of-staff. Last Friday, Mayor Peter Cammarano had said he would not resign and planned to continue running the city.
Cammarano was one of 44 people charged in the massive sting, a two-track investigation focusing on corruption among public officials and international money-laundering by rabbis and others in the Syrian Jewish community. A single informant, the son of a Syrian Jewish rabbi, laid the groundwork for the arrests after he was caught in a scheme to defraud PNC Bank of $50 million.
Cammaraon is charged with taking $25,000 in bribes from the informant.
Also charged in the case were the mayors of Ridgefield and Secaucus, several elected and appointed officials in Jersey City and a pair of state assemblyman. Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, who was also charged in the corruption probe, resigned from office on Tuesday.
Previously a Hoboken councilman, Cammarano is also an attorney who specializes in election law. The 32-year-old is the youngest mayor Hoboken has had.
PROFILE: FBI says Hoboken's new mayor employed old school political tactics
.
QUOTE
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/08/a...ight_on_an.html
Arrests shine spotlight on an unknown crime fighter
by Josh Margolin and Ted Sherman/The Star-Ledger
Saturday August 01, 2009, 9:36 PM
Officially, it was known as Operation Bid Rig, an ongoing criminal investigation into public corruption in New Jersey that first began more than a decade ago.
But as federal prosecutors dug deeper into allegations of money laundering, political payoffs and even the sale of black market kidneys -- and as the list of suspects grew to 44, including five rabbis, three mayors and two state legislators -- it got a new nickname.
Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr. is joined by Weysan Dun, FBI Special Agent in Charge of Newark, as he speaks at a news conference to announce the arrest of 44 New Jersey politicians, political operatives and several rabbis on charges including political corruption and money laundering on July 23, 2009 in Newark.
Some began calling it the "Normandy invasion."
Hundreds of federal agents gathered in the early morning darkness just over a week ago from Jersey City to Deal in a coordinated operation of military-style precision that shattered New Jersey's political landscape.
The commander of those forces, though, was not somebody as public or well-known as an Eisenhower, or for that matter, someone with the public persona of former U.S. attorneys like Chris Christie, or Rudy Giuliani, a former hard-knuckle prosecutor.
The guy who pulled the trigger on one of the most complex sting operations in New Jersey history was a low-key, career prosecutor with a taste for cooking, punk rock and surfing, who could be found this past week sitting back on the deck of a summer beach house on Long Beach Island for a long-planned vacation at the Jersey Shore.
Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra Jr., who took over after Christie left the office last year to run for governor, has spent much of his career working behind the scenes, prosecuting every sort of case from crooked street sweepers to wannabe jihadists.
Marra specialized in corruption in an office known for its corruption busting. But he left the spotlight to others. Yet, since the arrests went down 10 days ago, Marra has found himself suddenly on center stage.
He has received calls and congratulatory e-mails from others in law enforcement, and -- after weeks of long hours focused on the case -- has had time to laugh over some of the recent headlines. His favorite was an over-the-top proclamation: "Everyone in New Jersey was arrested today!" by one website.
He thought it was pretty funny, musing aloud: "What's that cuckoo bird guy doing there that replaced Christie . . ."
Marra says Jersey corruption can be a sort of two-edged phenomenon: so bad you have to laugh sometimes.
"We are extremely serious about what we do, but there's an incredible level of humor in our office; maybe you call it black humor," he said. "It's sort of hilarious at the same time. We are an amazingly target-rich environment in New Jersey."
Relaxing last week with his wife, Sharon, and three kids for a lunchtime cookout of grilled pizza, salad and shish kebab, Marra exchanged his starched white shirt for sandals, khaki shorts, a dark blue polo shirt emblazoned with the seal of his office, and a clear glass of sparkling water in hand. He said the case has energized his office, essentially taking down what he said had been well-entrenched organizations.
"Whether they're drug organizations, white-collar crime organizations, corrupt political organizations," he remarked. "I always look at us as disrupting those things, turning those things upside down."
The federal prosecutor declined to speak directly about the high-profile case itself -- a two-pronged investigation that charged dozens of public officials with taking payoffs for development deals and separately charged religious leaders as part of an international money laundering scheme. The two investigations were tied together by a single informant who had a foot in both worlds.
Marra said the cases all started coming together in January. The arrests were in the planning for at least a month, based on a real date etched on the calendar. And then the weeks leading up to that Thursday were long, with reviews of every single one of the charging documents and complaints.
Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of the FBI in Newark, told reporters that more than 300 federal agents, on 40 teams, were called in for the arrest operation. Arrest squads were assigned to each of the 44 defendants. Others served on interrogation teams or delivered search warrants.
The morning of the arrests, Marra hurried through a bowl of corn flakes and blueberries at his home in Cranford and was in the office in Newark by 7:30 a.m. as the FBI teams and other federal agents swept across the state.
He said it was like the Normandy invasion for two reasons: the large numbers involved and also the fact that once launched you just had to wait, hoping that nothing would go wrong.
"The ships are out there; they're on their way. You're not calling them back," Marra said.
A CHARGE THAT OFFENDS
It was Marra who made the "go, no-go" decision and in the aftermath, some charge it was a move that was politically motivated to help his former boss. He bristles at the suggestion, saying the case was brought down when it was ready to be brought down.
"I'm offended and I've told lawyers that. I've told lawyers to pass back on to their clients that 'the U.S. attorney laughed at that.' It's an insult," he declared. "People think we target or something. We don't. We're total opportunists. We target criminals. We target crooks."
Marra was named first assistant when Christie became U.S. attorney in 2002. He became close to Christie, but the two had not met each other previously, said Michele Brown, currently the acting first assistant in the office.
"Chris had a pretty informal style of management and people become very loyal to him," she said.
They quickly hit it off, both sharing an affinity for rock music and baseball (Marra is a Yankees fan; Christie wears a Mets cap), each known for a sense of humor.
Marra was a critical player in Christie's success in the office. And that success helped Christie overcome criticism from those who argued his lack of law enforcement experience left him ill-prepared to lead the U.S. Attorney's Office.
"Chris relied on Ralph's advice and counsel and knew with his experience he could prosecute the most important cases," said Brown.
Corruption seems to anger Marra most. He spoke of one grandmother telling stories of shakedowns at a family owned bar in Hoboken.
"I vividly remember her showing me -- I must've been 9 years old -- one of her best friends had another saloon. She'd take me in the back and show me where they used to stuff the ballot boxes," he said.
His father, who came here from Italy in 1930, talked of the abuses under Benito Mussolini and jumped for joy when then-U.S. Attorney Frederick Lacey won national attention for opening a war on political corruption some 40 years ago.
"I remember him saying 'somebody's finally doing something about these bastards,'" Marra recounted.
A lifelong Democrat, Marra insists that too plays no role in the office. In fact, he used to bring his kids -- now 25, 23 and 17 -- into the voting booth when they were young, telling them to vote the Democratic line, "skipping the crooks."
How will we know, they would ask.
"By the time you're old enough to vote, you'll know," he promised.
SUBURBAN UPBRINGING
Despite his Hudson County roots, Marra, 56, grew up a world away from Hoboken in the quiet, suburban Passaic County town of Totowa. The family legend was that his father was looking for a parking space in Hoboken and ended up some 20 miles away. He played football for Passaic Valley Regional High ("I wasn't anything great, but it was fun) and then went on to Rutgers University, where he majored in history, and then New York University Law School, where he was a member of the law review.
Known to frequent CBGB, home to the punk music scene in lower Manhattan in the 1980s, Marra discovered groups like the Talking Heads and the Ramones. Asked if he named his daughter after the lead singer of the Pretenders, Marra only smiled.
"I have a big crush on Chrissie Hynde. I'll confess to that," he said. In fact, there is a big poster of the Pretenders on the wall of his office. It moves with him when he changes offices.
Marra did not set out to become a prosecutor. He worked for a series of law firms, at one point doing arbitration work on behalf of the New York press unions, and later doing product liability cases, before being hired by U.S. Attorney W. Hunt Dumont in 1985.
Later assigned to the special prosecutions division, he tried and won his first corruption case in 1988 involving a public works superintendent accused of taking payoffs.
His biggest cases over the years included a major probe into kickbacks and fraud of expensive X-ray materials from hospitals, later code-named Operation CATSCAM; the prosecution of former Essex County treasurer Joseph Galluzzi, who pocketed $185,000 in kickbacks for steering payments from bank and brokerage firms; and the prosecution of former Newark mayor Kenneth Gibson.
Asked about the lives ruined by prosecutions, Marra said it is something anyone in his job has to put out of their mind.
"People telling me when I'm pursuing a target I'm doing something terrible to somebody and his family. If I worry about collateral consequences, then I should leave the job," he said quietly.
AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY
Marra's position as a right-hand man to Christie ironically came after his best friend, Cranford attorney Walter Timpone -- who once headed the Newark office's corruption prosecution division -- dropped out of consideration for the job over criticism that he had met with then-Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.). At the time, Torricelli was the target of a high-profile corruption probe. Some charged that Timpone, who was being considered for his law enforcement experience, had compromised his credibility.
Timpone remains close to Marra and in fact shares the summer house rental with him ever year. He said he is happy for his friend's moment in the sun.
"Nobody's more pleased than I that he is being able to run the office for a time," Timpone remarked.
Quick to dish dirt with the playfulness of a brother (there was an incident of poison ivy that can't be discussed here; an aversion to camping that would have Marra leaving his two boys on a scouting overnight trip while he went home to sleep in his own bed, quietly driving back the next morning at daybreak; and that fascination with Chrissie Hynde), Timpone at the same time called Marra the smartest lawyer he knows.
Marra, meanwhile, said he is enjoying every minute of his job as acting U.S. attorney but acknowledges the spotlight will soon shift when Paul Fishman, who has been nominated to take the reins of the office, is eventually sworn in to become the next U.S. attorney -- possibly as soon as this week.
"I've loved all my time in the office and I've enjoyed every role I've had and every case I've had," he said. "My attitude is when Paul gets sworn in, he's the U.S. attorney and he calls the shots."
.
Arrests shine spotlight on an unknown crime fighter
by Josh Margolin and Ted Sherman/The Star-Ledger
Saturday August 01, 2009, 9:36 PM
Officially, it was known as Operation Bid Rig, an ongoing criminal investigation into public corruption in New Jersey that first began more than a decade ago.
But as federal prosecutors dug deeper into allegations of money laundering, political payoffs and even the sale of black market kidneys -- and as the list of suspects grew to 44, including five rabbis, three mayors and two state legislators -- it got a new nickname.
Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr. is joined by Weysan Dun, FBI Special Agent in Charge of Newark, as he speaks at a news conference to announce the arrest of 44 New Jersey politicians, political operatives and several rabbis on charges including political corruption and money laundering on July 23, 2009 in Newark.
Some began calling it the "Normandy invasion."
Hundreds of federal agents gathered in the early morning darkness just over a week ago from Jersey City to Deal in a coordinated operation of military-style precision that shattered New Jersey's political landscape.
The commander of those forces, though, was not somebody as public or well-known as an Eisenhower, or for that matter, someone with the public persona of former U.S. attorneys like Chris Christie, or Rudy Giuliani, a former hard-knuckle prosecutor.
The guy who pulled the trigger on one of the most complex sting operations in New Jersey history was a low-key, career prosecutor with a taste for cooking, punk rock and surfing, who could be found this past week sitting back on the deck of a summer beach house on Long Beach Island for a long-planned vacation at the Jersey Shore.
Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra Jr., who took over after Christie left the office last year to run for governor, has spent much of his career working behind the scenes, prosecuting every sort of case from crooked street sweepers to wannabe jihadists.
Marra specialized in corruption in an office known for its corruption busting. But he left the spotlight to others. Yet, since the arrests went down 10 days ago, Marra has found himself suddenly on center stage.
He has received calls and congratulatory e-mails from others in law enforcement, and -- after weeks of long hours focused on the case -- has had time to laugh over some of the recent headlines. His favorite was an over-the-top proclamation: "Everyone in New Jersey was arrested today!" by one website.
He thought it was pretty funny, musing aloud: "What's that cuckoo bird guy doing there that replaced Christie . . ."
Marra says Jersey corruption can be a sort of two-edged phenomenon: so bad you have to laugh sometimes.
"We are extremely serious about what we do, but there's an incredible level of humor in our office; maybe you call it black humor," he said. "It's sort of hilarious at the same time. We are an amazingly target-rich environment in New Jersey."
Relaxing last week with his wife, Sharon, and three kids for a lunchtime cookout of grilled pizza, salad and shish kebab, Marra exchanged his starched white shirt for sandals, khaki shorts, a dark blue polo shirt emblazoned with the seal of his office, and a clear glass of sparkling water in hand. He said the case has energized his office, essentially taking down what he said had been well-entrenched organizations.
"Whether they're drug organizations, white-collar crime organizations, corrupt political organizations," he remarked. "I always look at us as disrupting those things, turning those things upside down."
The federal prosecutor declined to speak directly about the high-profile case itself -- a two-pronged investigation that charged dozens of public officials with taking payoffs for development deals and separately charged religious leaders as part of an international money laundering scheme. The two investigations were tied together by a single informant who had a foot in both worlds.
Marra said the cases all started coming together in January. The arrests were in the planning for at least a month, based on a real date etched on the calendar. And then the weeks leading up to that Thursday were long, with reviews of every single one of the charging documents and complaints.
Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of the FBI in Newark, told reporters that more than 300 federal agents, on 40 teams, were called in for the arrest operation. Arrest squads were assigned to each of the 44 defendants. Others served on interrogation teams or delivered search warrants.
The morning of the arrests, Marra hurried through a bowl of corn flakes and blueberries at his home in Cranford and was in the office in Newark by 7:30 a.m. as the FBI teams and other federal agents swept across the state.
He said it was like the Normandy invasion for two reasons: the large numbers involved and also the fact that once launched you just had to wait, hoping that nothing would go wrong.
"The ships are out there; they're on their way. You're not calling them back," Marra said.
A CHARGE THAT OFFENDS
It was Marra who made the "go, no-go" decision and in the aftermath, some charge it was a move that was politically motivated to help his former boss. He bristles at the suggestion, saying the case was brought down when it was ready to be brought down.
"I'm offended and I've told lawyers that. I've told lawyers to pass back on to their clients that 'the U.S. attorney laughed at that.' It's an insult," he declared. "People think we target or something. We don't. We're total opportunists. We target criminals. We target crooks."
Marra was named first assistant when Christie became U.S. attorney in 2002. He became close to Christie, but the two had not met each other previously, said Michele Brown, currently the acting first assistant in the office.
"Chris had a pretty informal style of management and people become very loyal to him," she said.
They quickly hit it off, both sharing an affinity for rock music and baseball (Marra is a Yankees fan; Christie wears a Mets cap), each known for a sense of humor.
Marra was a critical player in Christie's success in the office. And that success helped Christie overcome criticism from those who argued his lack of law enforcement experience left him ill-prepared to lead the U.S. Attorney's Office.
"Chris relied on Ralph's advice and counsel and knew with his experience he could prosecute the most important cases," said Brown.
Corruption seems to anger Marra most. He spoke of one grandmother telling stories of shakedowns at a family owned bar in Hoboken.
"I vividly remember her showing me -- I must've been 9 years old -- one of her best friends had another saloon. She'd take me in the back and show me where they used to stuff the ballot boxes," he said.
His father, who came here from Italy in 1930, talked of the abuses under Benito Mussolini and jumped for joy when then-U.S. Attorney Frederick Lacey won national attention for opening a war on political corruption some 40 years ago.
"I remember him saying 'somebody's finally doing something about these bastards,'" Marra recounted.
A lifelong Democrat, Marra insists that too plays no role in the office. In fact, he used to bring his kids -- now 25, 23 and 17 -- into the voting booth when they were young, telling them to vote the Democratic line, "skipping the crooks."
How will we know, they would ask.
"By the time you're old enough to vote, you'll know," he promised.
SUBURBAN UPBRINGING
Despite his Hudson County roots, Marra, 56, grew up a world away from Hoboken in the quiet, suburban Passaic County town of Totowa. The family legend was that his father was looking for a parking space in Hoboken and ended up some 20 miles away. He played football for Passaic Valley Regional High ("I wasn't anything great, but it was fun) and then went on to Rutgers University, where he majored in history, and then New York University Law School, where he was a member of the law review.
Known to frequent CBGB, home to the punk music scene in lower Manhattan in the 1980s, Marra discovered groups like the Talking Heads and the Ramones. Asked if he named his daughter after the lead singer of the Pretenders, Marra only smiled.
"I have a big crush on Chrissie Hynde. I'll confess to that," he said. In fact, there is a big poster of the Pretenders on the wall of his office. It moves with him when he changes offices.
Marra did not set out to become a prosecutor. He worked for a series of law firms, at one point doing arbitration work on behalf of the New York press unions, and later doing product liability cases, before being hired by U.S. Attorney W. Hunt Dumont in 1985.
Later assigned to the special prosecutions division, he tried and won his first corruption case in 1988 involving a public works superintendent accused of taking payoffs.
His biggest cases over the years included a major probe into kickbacks and fraud of expensive X-ray materials from hospitals, later code-named Operation CATSCAM; the prosecution of former Essex County treasurer Joseph Galluzzi, who pocketed $185,000 in kickbacks for steering payments from bank and brokerage firms; and the prosecution of former Newark mayor Kenneth Gibson.
Asked about the lives ruined by prosecutions, Marra said it is something anyone in his job has to put out of their mind.
"People telling me when I'm pursuing a target I'm doing something terrible to somebody and his family. If I worry about collateral consequences, then I should leave the job," he said quietly.
AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY
Marra's position as a right-hand man to Christie ironically came after his best friend, Cranford attorney Walter Timpone -- who once headed the Newark office's corruption prosecution division -- dropped out of consideration for the job over criticism that he had met with then-Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.). At the time, Torricelli was the target of a high-profile corruption probe. Some charged that Timpone, who was being considered for his law enforcement experience, had compromised his credibility.
Timpone remains close to Marra and in fact shares the summer house rental with him ever year. He said he is happy for his friend's moment in the sun.
"Nobody's more pleased than I that he is being able to run the office for a time," Timpone remarked.
Quick to dish dirt with the playfulness of a brother (there was an incident of poison ivy that can't be discussed here; an aversion to camping that would have Marra leaving his two boys on a scouting overnight trip while he went home to sleep in his own bed, quietly driving back the next morning at daybreak; and that fascination with Chrissie Hynde), Timpone at the same time called Marra the smartest lawyer he knows.
Marra, meanwhile, said he is enjoying every minute of his job as acting U.S. attorney but acknowledges the spotlight will soon shift when Paul Fishman, who has been nominated to take the reins of the office, is eventually sworn in to become the next U.S. attorney -- possibly as soon as this week.
"I've loved all my time in the office and I've enjoyed every role I've had and every case I've had," he said. "My attitude is when Paul gets sworn in, he's the U.S. attorney and he calls the shots."
.
QUOTE
http://www.politickernj.com/wallye/29765/o...ominate-fishman
Obama set to nominate Fishman
May 14, 2009
By Wally Edge
President Obama is expected to nominate Paul Fishman as the new U.S. Attorney for New Jersey within the next few days, possibly as early as tomorrow, sources say. His nomination must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Fishman was recommended for the post by U.S. Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) last February. The post has been vacant since Republican Christopher J. Christie resigned on December 1. Ralph Marra, Jr. is now the Acting U.S. Attorney.
The 52-year-old Fishman, a Princeton University graduate and editor of the Harvard Law Review, worked in the U.S. Attorney's office as Chief of the Criminal Division and as First Assistant before going to Washington as a senior advisor to Reno and as a Deputy U.S. Attorney General. Fishman is a partner at Friedman, Kaplan, Seiler and Adelman, where he specializes in white collar criminal matters. Fishman has represented several public officials prosecuted by Christie, and is currently an attorney for former CWA Local 1034 President Carla Katz, who is seeking to keep her e-mail correspondence with Governor Jon Corzine private.
Lautenberg pushed hard for Fishman to get the U.S. Attorney post when Faith Hochberg was nominated to a federal judgeship in 1999. But Fishman got in the middle of a rather extraordinary public feud between Lautenberg and U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli. The Clinton administration sided with Torricelli, and when Hochberg resigned to take her seat on the bench (after a lengthy delay in the confirmation process), Attorney General Janet Reno elevated Torricelli's preferred choice, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cleary, as New Jersey's interim federal prosecutor.
.
Obama set to nominate Fishman
May 14, 2009
By Wally Edge
President Obama is expected to nominate Paul Fishman as the new U.S. Attorney for New Jersey within the next few days, possibly as early as tomorrow, sources say. His nomination must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Fishman was recommended for the post by U.S. Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park) and Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) last February. The post has been vacant since Republican Christopher J. Christie resigned on December 1. Ralph Marra, Jr. is now the Acting U.S. Attorney.
The 52-year-old Fishman, a Princeton University graduate and editor of the Harvard Law Review, worked in the U.S. Attorney's office as Chief of the Criminal Division and as First Assistant before going to Washington as a senior advisor to Reno and as a Deputy U.S. Attorney General. Fishman is a partner at Friedman, Kaplan, Seiler and Adelman, where he specializes in white collar criminal matters. Fishman has represented several public officials prosecuted by Christie, and is currently an attorney for former CWA Local 1034 President Carla Katz, who is seeking to keep her e-mail correspondence with Governor Jon Corzine private.
Lautenberg pushed hard for Fishman to get the U.S. Attorney post when Faith Hochberg was nominated to a federal judgeship in 1999. But Fishman got in the middle of a rather extraordinary public feud between Lautenberg and U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli. The Clinton administration sided with Torricelli, and when Hochberg resigned to take her seat on the bench (after a lengthy delay in the confirmation process), Attorney General Janet Reno elevated Torricelli's preferred choice, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Cleary, as New Jersey's interim federal prosecutor.
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http://www.ticklethewire.com/2009/06/23/nj...ll-client-list/
N.J. Nominee for U.S. Atty. Paul Fishman Refuses to Disclose Full Client List
June 23, 2009
This raises an interesting dilemma. Yes, we have a right to know as much about a U.S. Attorney candidate as possible. And yes, clients who are targets of grand juries have a right to privacy. What to do? We assume we can trust nominees like Fishman to recuse themselves in instances where there’s a conflict of interest. On the other hand, maybe we should just avoid appointing U.S. Attorneys who are criminal lawyers and have disclosure issues.
By Jim McElhatton
Washington Times
WASHINGTON — The criminal defense lawyer nominated by President Obama to be the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey is declining to identify more than half of his private clients on government forms designed to help the public guard against potential conflicts of interests.
Paul J. Fishman, nominated to serve as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, is citing the privacy interests of the clients - an exemption that is permitted under federal ethics laws, but that leaves prosecutors on an honor system to police their own conflicts, ethics watchdogs say.
Mr. Fishman provided the names of 29 clients on the government disclosure form, including a convicted former New Jersey municipal official, a health care company and the former girlfriend of New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine.
But he withheld the names of “approximately 37 confidential clients,["] saying they cannot be named because they are involved in grand jury or other secret investigations.
Full story http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/j...id-all-clients/
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N.J. Nominee for U.S. Atty. Paul Fishman Refuses to Disclose Full Client List
June 23, 2009
This raises an interesting dilemma. Yes, we have a right to know as much about a U.S. Attorney candidate as possible. And yes, clients who are targets of grand juries have a right to privacy. What to do? We assume we can trust nominees like Fishman to recuse themselves in instances where there’s a conflict of interest. On the other hand, maybe we should just avoid appointing U.S. Attorneys who are criminal lawyers and have disclosure issues.
By Jim McElhatton
Washington Times
WASHINGTON — The criminal defense lawyer nominated by President Obama to be the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey is declining to identify more than half of his private clients on government forms designed to help the public guard against potential conflicts of interests.
Paul J. Fishman, nominated to serve as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, is citing the privacy interests of the clients - an exemption that is permitted under federal ethics laws, but that leaves prosecutors on an honor system to police their own conflicts, ethics watchdogs say.
Mr. Fishman provided the names of 29 clients on the government disclosure form, including a convicted former New Jersey municipal official, a health care company and the former girlfriend of New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine.
But he withheld the names of “approximately 37 confidential clients,["] saying they cannot be named because they are involved in grand jury or other secret investigations.
Full story http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/j...id-all-clients/
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I would be real curious as to who is pulling the strings to make this a "democratic" thing and to embarrass Corzine, who is NOT part of this.
seems when one sniffs, and it comes up with how adventageious it is to that fat,sweaty republican Christie, at just this time, it reeks of what
Karl Rove did for George W Bush on orders from George Herbert Walker Bush41.
I don't see any connections, but when 1 and 1 comes up 2, something is not Kosher here, and its not just the Rabbi's...
your love for the Clinton's believe_it is giving you away here, and it seems not letting you think straight
because there is a direct line between Bill clinton and Robert Torreclli and Mark Rich and George Herbert Walker Bush41 and Iran Contra
etc.
If only Jerry Brown won in 1992, life would be different today. That he was character asssassinated by the eventual nominees, well, it goes
without saying
btw- what was Janet Reno doing when she incinerated all those kiddies at Waco??? I still don't get it.
that was damn odd...Janet being Hillary and Bill's person...
Why were those kiddies incinrated like that? Will the true story of Waco ever come out?
seems when one sniffs, and it comes up with how adventageious it is to that fat,sweaty republican Christie, at just this time, it reeks of what
Karl Rove did for George W Bush on orders from George Herbert Walker Bush41.
I don't see any connections, but when 1 and 1 comes up 2, something is not Kosher here, and its not just the Rabbi's...
your love for the Clinton's believe_it is giving you away here, and it seems not letting you think straight
because there is a direct line between Bill clinton and Robert Torreclli and Mark Rich and George Herbert Walker Bush41 and Iran Contra
etc.
If only Jerry Brown won in 1992, life would be different today. That he was character asssassinated by the eventual nominees, well, it goes
without saying
btw- what was Janet Reno doing when she incinerated all those kiddies at Waco??? I still don't get it.
that was damn odd...Janet being Hillary and Bill's person...
Why were those kiddies incinrated like that? Will the true story of Waco ever come out?
I don't know what to make of this, but I don't think party affiliation has anything to do with it.
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http://www.mainjustice.com/2009/07/09/fish...roversial-dpas/
Fishman Has Seen Other Side of Christie’s Controversial DPAs
By Farhan Daredia | July 9, 2009
Last year, then-U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s office quietly cleared a central figure in a billing fraud case that led to one of the controversial deferred prosecution agreements that Democrats have called corrupt. The kicker: the woman who was under investigation is represented by Paul Fishman, the nominee to be the new U.S. Attorney in New Jersey.
According to the New Jersey Star-Ledger, Christie’s office sent Vivian Sanks King a letter saying she was not a target of an investigation into billing practices at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. King had been the school’s general counsel, but she was forced out of her job almost three years earlier, reports the Star-Ledger.
Christie had required the ouster of King and three other employees as a condition for a deferred prosecution agreement entered by UMDNJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Christie had informed the UMDNJ Board that if they didn’t take the agreement, the university would be indicted and potentially barred from receiving Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. You can read the agreement here.
But there’s more. The firm chosen by Christie to monitor the agreement was that of former U.S. Attorney Herbert J. Stern, who’d been a mentor to Christie. Stern’s law firm received three million dollars in fees for their work as a federal monitor of UMDNJ. You can read more about Stern’s career here. Stern, his law partners, and their spouses, have donated $23,800 to Christie’s gubernatorial campaign; Christie received an additional $47,600 in matching funds through the contributions. Christie also hired Stern’s son as a federal prosecutor before leaving his position as U.S. Attorney.
You can read our report on Christie’s testimony before the House Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law regarding deferred prosecution agreements here. Christie is now running for New Jersey governor against incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine (D).
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Fishman Has Seen Other Side of Christie’s Controversial DPAs
By Farhan Daredia | July 9, 2009
Last year, then-U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie’s office quietly cleared a central figure in a billing fraud case that led to one of the controversial deferred prosecution agreements that Democrats have called corrupt. The kicker: the woman who was under investigation is represented by Paul Fishman, the nominee to be the new U.S. Attorney in New Jersey.
According to the New Jersey Star-Ledger, Christie’s office sent Vivian Sanks King a letter saying she was not a target of an investigation into billing practices at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. King had been the school’s general counsel, but she was forced out of her job almost three years earlier, reports the Star-Ledger.
Christie had required the ouster of King and three other employees as a condition for a deferred prosecution agreement entered by UMDNJ and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Christie had informed the UMDNJ Board that if they didn’t take the agreement, the university would be indicted and potentially barred from receiving Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. You can read the agreement here.
But there’s more. The firm chosen by Christie to monitor the agreement was that of former U.S. Attorney Herbert J. Stern, who’d been a mentor to Christie. Stern’s law firm received three million dollars in fees for their work as a federal monitor of UMDNJ. You can read more about Stern’s career here. Stern, his law partners, and their spouses, have donated $23,800 to Christie’s gubernatorial campaign; Christie received an additional $47,600 in matching funds through the contributions. Christie also hired Stern’s son as a federal prosecutor before leaving his position as U.S. Attorney.
You can read our report on Christie’s testimony before the House Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law regarding deferred prosecution agreements here. Christie is now running for New Jersey governor against incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine (D).
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