----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Denver Media
Service <[email protected]>
To: 1TPU
<[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, July 24,
2009 7:19:15 AM
Subject: Jewish
charities linked to money laundering
Rabbis who gave ethics sermons sold fake
Gucci bags and goods - accused of international money laundering
Fake Gucci bag probe nets U.S. politicians,
rabbis
Jewish charities linked to money laundering
Jul 24, 2009 04:30 AM
DAVID PORTER
ASSOCIATED
PRESS
NEWARK, N.J.–An investigation into the sale of black-market
kidneys and fake Gucci handbags evolved into a probe of New Jersey
political corruption that produced mass arrests yesterday, including
three mayors, two state legislators and several rabbis.
Even for a state with a rich history of graft, the scale of
alleged wrongdoing was breathtaking. An FBI official said corruption
"is destroying the core values of this state."
Federal prosecutors said the investigation initially focused on a
money-laundering network tied to Brooklyn, N.Y., Deal, N.J., and Israel
that allegedly processed tens of millions of dollars through Jewish
charities controlled by local rabbis.
Prosecutors used an informant in that investigation – a real
estate developer trying to mitigate earlier bank fraud charges – to
pose as a crooked businessman and pay bribes to public officials to get
approvals for New Jersey building projects.
Among the 44 arrests were the mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and
Secaucus, Jersey City's deputy mayor, and two state assemblymen. A
member of the governor's cabinet resigned after agents searched his
home. All but one of the office-holders are Democrats.
Also, five rabbis from New York and New Jersey were accused of
laundering millions of dollars, some of it from the sale of counterfeit
goods and bankruptcy fraud.
Yesterday morning FBI and IRS agents raided a synagogue in Deal, a
wealthy oceanfront city of Mediterranean-style mansions, with a large
population of Syrian Jews.
Those arrested included Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn, who was
charged with conspiring to arrange the sale of an Israeli citizen's
kidney for $160,000 for a transplant for the informant's fictitious
uncle. Rosenbaum was quoted as saying he had been arranging the sale of
kidneys for 10 years.
More than 130 public officials in New Jersey have been convicted
of corruption since 2001.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/671068
