New Jersey mayors, lawmakers arrested in corruption case
From Sunshine Review
July 23, 2009 After an investigation of black-market human organ and fake handbag trade, 40 people were arrested in New Jersey, including three mayors, two state lawmakers and several rabbis.[1]
[edit] International corruption
The corruption scandal connected money laundering operations between Brooklyn, N.Y.; Deal, N.J.; and Israel. There was an alleged tens of millions of dollars filtered through Jewish charities that rabbis controlled in New York and New Jersey.
Prosecutors utilized an informant, a real estate developer charged with bank fraud three years ago, to help them ascertain corrupt politicians by having the informant pose as a crooked businessman. The informant then paid a string of public officials tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to get approvals for buildings and other New Jersey projects.[1]
[edit] Those arrested
The authorities arrested 44 people including mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus, the Jersey City deputy mayor, as well as two state assemblymen. All but one of these officials are Democrats. Additionally, after agents searched the home of a cabinet member of the governor, he resigned but not arrested.
Police also arrested five New York and New Jersey rabbis, two of whom had congregations in Deal, for laundering millions of dollars, some of it from the sale of counterfeit goods and bankruptcy fraud. Thursday morning, FBI and IRS agents raided a Deal synagogue. Deal, N.J. is a pricey oceanfront city of mansions in the Mediterranean style with a large population of Syrian Jews.
Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn was arrested and 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. According to Rosenbaum, he has arranged kidney sales for 10 years.
The arrested politicians are free from accusations of involvement in the money laundering or the human organs and counterfeit handbag trafficking.
Though New Jersey has had more than 130 public officials plead guilty or be convicted of corruption since 2001, the number of arrests was incredible.
"New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation," said Ed Kahrer, who heads the FBI's white-collar and public corruption division. "Corruption is a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state."
"The scale of corruption we're seeing as this unfolds is simply outrageous and cannot be tolerated," said Governor Jon Corzine.[1]
[edit] Joseph Doria
New Jersey Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria resigned hours after FBI agents seized documents from his home and office. It is not clear whether he will be charged as federal officials would not say and Doria did not return calls for comment.
Officials did not release the name of the informant who hinged the two investigations by giving prosecutors information about the money laundering operation. Later, at the FBI's direction, he drew on his background to go after politicians.
Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III was a major source for the informant, prosecutors said. Cammarano, 32, won a runoff election last month and was accused of accepting money from the developer while at a Hoboken diner.
"There's the people who were with us, and that's you guys," the complaint quotes Cammarano saying. "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 into powder."
Cammarano attorney Joseph Hayden said his client is "innocent of these charges. He intends to fight them with all his strength until he proves his innocence."
Cammarano has been accused of accepting $25,000 in cash bribes, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell was charged with taking $10,000 and Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez was charged with agreeing to accept an illegal $10,000.
Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini was charged with conspiracy to commit extortion by illegally taking $20,000 for campaign contributions. State Assemblymen Daniel Van Pelt and L. Harvey Smith were also accused of taking payoffs, the Associated Press reported.
According to Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, the charges were "a little shocking."
"I have full faith in Leona," Healy said. "She's a good friend of mine — was and will be."
When four FBI agents raided the Deal Synagogue, Mike Winnick was praying in it and the agents escorted a rabbi into his office and blocked the doorway. "Everyone was looking at each other, like, 'What's going on here?'" Winnick said.
The arrested were bused in to the FBI's Newark office.[1]
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