DJ Trava

Posts Tagged ‘New Jersey’

The FBI has been busy this week, on the east coast of the United States.  Rabbis in New Jersey and New York were arrested on Thursday for crimes of money laundering, an international operation.  And in Hoboken New Jersey, many government officials, including the Mayor, were arrested for political corruption and their involvement in a kidney smuggling ring.  Yes, human kidneys.  More than forty people were involved and subsequently arrested.  In the process of the investigation for the money laundering rabbis and mayors, FBI investigators just happened upon a man who had been, allegedly, buying kidneys from people in Israel and selling them in the United States, along with fake designer purses and handbags.  Levy Ishak Rosenbaum is a businessman from Brooklyn, and admits to having been involved with the illegal sales for ten years.  Kidneys were purchased for ten thousand dollars, and then sold to those needing transplants in the United States for one hundred, sixty thousand dollars.  Rosenbaum called himself a matchmaker.

This was just part of a sweeping investigation on political corruption in New Jersey which included commissioners, council members, inspectors, 3 mayors and twenty nine other public officials.  Criminal negotiations had been taking place for years, in basements, diners and parking garages.  The two separate operations, of the rabbis accused of money laundering, and the bribery and corruption in the government of New Jersey, were linked by Solomon Dwek.  Dwek was arrested in 2006, on charges of fraud when he tried to pass a bad check, for twenty five million dollars.  He has since become a government informant and led the FBI to the two criminal networks.  He passed himself off as a real estate developer, and he offered bribes for permits to city officials, including the Building Inspector and the Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Director.  He bribed many others including workers in the health department, housing officials and inspectors.