US: Kidney Scandal Exposed Amid Corruption Sting

I’m not putting this just because that it happened in the US and like the rest of the world it is plagued with corruption but I wish this could happen in my country where most politicians and some religious figures would end up in jail but the funny or rather sad part is our corrupted politicians are actually US allies and they support them even though they know what they are. 

Kidney Scandal Exposed Amid Corruption Sting, source

Rabbis and mayors are among more than 40 people arrested over allegations of political bribery, money-laundering and the selling of human organs in the US.

Federal investigators say their 10-year probe – dubbed Operation Bid Rig – uncovered widespread corruption of public officials and the channelling of funds through charities operated by local Jewish leaders.

The mayors of New Jersey cities Hoboken, Secaucus, Ridgefield and the deputy mayor of Jersey City – along with council members, housing officials and building inspectors – are all accused of accepting money in return for help with project approval.

“New Jersey’s corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation,” said Ed Kahrer, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s white collar crime and public corruption program in New Jersey.

“It has become ingrained in New Jersey’s political culture.”

Authorities say their investigations into the political bribery led them to a separate money-laundering network involving some $3m (£1.8m) between June 2007 and July 2009.

High-profile rabbis in Brooklyn and New Jersey are accused of using charities to launder illicit funds from the sale of fake designer handbags between the US and Israel.

“These complaints paint a disgraceful picture of religious leaders heading money laundering crews [and] acting as crime bosses,” Acting US Attorney Ralph Marra said.

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn is even alleged to have conspired to broker the sale of a human kidney, and may have been doing so for 10 years.

“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,” Mr Marra said.

The sweep is believed to be one of the biggest such actions ever in a state long associated with corruption, and famous as the setting of hit Mafia television drama The Sopranos.

5 rabbis among 44 indicted over corruption case

Fri, 24 Jul 2009, Press TV

The mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus, New Jersey, and five rabbis are among 44 people charged by a US court with corruption and money laundering.

Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, and Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez , all Democrats; Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega Jr.; State Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, a Republican from Ocean Township; and Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, a Jersey City Democrat, were charged on Thursday in an FBI complaint.

They all appeared in a US court in Newark, New Jersey except for Smith.

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, non-profit entities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey to Israel,” according to a release by acting US Attorney Ralph Marra.

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 USD 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 rabbis were Saul Kassin, chief rabbi of Sharee Zion, a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York; Eliahu Ben Haim, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, New Jersey; Edmond Nahum of Deal Synagogue in Deal; Mordchai Fish of Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn; and Lavel Schwartz, Fish’s brother.

The rabbis were charged with money laundering. They are members of the Syrian Jewish or Hasidic Jewish communities, Marra said at the news conference.

Kassin is accused of laundering more than USD 200,000 from June 2007 through December 2008 by accepting ‘dirty checks’ and exchanging them for ‘clean’ checks, according to prosecutors.

Fish, Schwartz and two other defendants used a charitable, tax-exempt organization called BCG, which was associated with Fish’s synagogue, to launder money, according to the FBI.

Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum 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.

Prosecutors charged the men in a series of criminal complaints detailing the allegations. Ben Haim was accused of laundering USD 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.

“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.”