wmlro.com: mayors, rabbis and more arrested in New Jersey

The mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus were arrested yesterday during a swoop that collected politicians, business people and rabbis resulting from a corruption investigation that has been going on for ten years. The first casualty of the investigation, however, was not amongst them: Joseph Daria's home was amongst those searched by detectives but he was not arrested, say police. Daria, however, immediately resigned his position as a member of the state cabinet. He is a former mayor, in his case of the district of Bayonne.

The investigation has been conducted, despite political difficulty, by the US Attorney's Office and the FBI with back up from the Internal Revenue Service.

In an irony that will not be lost on readers, the rabbis have been charged that they used charities known as "yeshivas" and other "non-profit organisations" to launder money. It has long been the cry of primarily Jewish groups that Muslims use charities to launder money or collect and transmit funds for terrorists.

But the allegations reach both the disgraceful and disturbing: disgracefully, the rabbis are alleged to have funnelled money for illegal harvesting and sale of human organs, in some cases buying organs for a pittance from financially desperate individuals and then selling them at a substantial profit. Bizarrely, this theme has been used in a number of urban myths as well as entertainment channels.

Equally disgracefully, one rabbi is charged that he agreed to take into his charity assets a "donor" admitted were being transferred to keep them out of the hands of a trustee in bankruptcy. Saying that the funds were provided by a wealthy Israeli in Israel, the rabbi arranged for the "donor" to receive 90% of the value of the assets in cash; the system described is a form of informal value transfer which, in other societies, would be related to hawala.

Disturbingly, the rabbis are alleged to have funnelled campaign funds for various politicians, either placing them in the names of non-contributors (generally men of straw) or by passing the funds through business or personal accounts of third parties so as to bypass campaign rules.

Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra Jr. said the arrests underscored the continuing pervasiveness of public corruption in New Jersey: ""For these defendants, corruption was a way of life.They existed in an ethics free zone. And they exploited giant loopholes in the state's campaign contribution rules."

The FBI is careful to ensure that the case is not seen as in any way religiously motivated: Weysan Dun, who heads the FBI's Newark, New Jersey office said ""The fact that we arrested a number of rabbis this morning does not make this a religiously motivated case. Nor does the fact that we arrested political figures make this a politically motivated case. This case is not about politics. It is certainly not about religion. It is about crime and corruption."

And, assuming all the allegations are proved, what it shows is the continued willingness of certain sections of society to buy policies for their special interests.

But Chris Christie will have to watch his back: for all and any skeletons he may have will now be hunted down for public consumption. Christie was, until recently, the US Attorney for New Jersey. Two years ago, he revitalised the investigation which had become virtually moribund. The incumbent Governor is Jon Corzine, a Democrat and whose term of office is almost up. His primary challenger in the forthcoming elections is Republican Chris Christie.

As the arrests were taking place, orders were obtained to freeze assets including the accounts of the "charities" and "non-profit organisations."

Not all of those arrested are from New Jersey: some are from Brooklyn.

The list of people we have arrested sounds like it should be a roster for a meeting of community leaders. But instead this morning they were in an FBI booking room: Weysun Dun

The FBI Field Office in Newark has provided the following partial list of defendants charged:

Among those charged in criminal Complaints are:

• Peter Cammarano III, the newly elected mayor of Hoboken and an attorney, charged with accepting USD25,000 in cash bribes, including USD10,000 last Thursday, from an undercover cooperating witness.
• L. Harvey Smith, a New Jersey Assemblyman and recent mayoral candidate in Jersey City, charged along with an aide of taking USD15,000 in bribes to help get approvals from high-level state agency officials for building projects.
• Daniel Van Pelt, a New Jersey Assemblyman, charged with accepting a USD10,000 bribe.
• Dennis Elwell, mayor of Secaucus, charged with taking a USD10,000 cash bribe.
• Anthony Suarez, mayor of Ridgefield and an attorney, charged with agreeing to accept a USD10,000 corrupt cash payment for his legal defence fund.
• Louis Manzo, the recent unsuccessful challenger in the Jersey City mayoral election and former state Assemblyman, and his brother and political advisor Robert Manzo, both with taking USD27,500 in corrupt cash payments for use in Louis Manzo’s campaign.
• Leona Beldini, the Jersey City deputy mayor and a campaign treasurer, charged with taking USD20,000 in conduit campaign contributions and other self-dealing in her official capacity.
• Eliahu Ben Haim, of Long Branch, N.J., the principal rabbi of a synagogue in Deal, N.J., charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.
• Saul Kassin, of Brooklyn, N.Y., the chief rabbi of a synagogue in Brooklyn, New York, charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.
• Edmund Nahum, of Deal, N.J., the principal rabbi of a synagogue in Deal, charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.
• Mordchai Fish, of Brooklyn, N.Y., a rabbi at a synagogue in Brooklyn, charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity. His brother, also a rabbi, was charged as well.

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, with conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant, at a cost of USD160,000 to the transplant recipient. According to the Complaint, Rosenbaum said he had been brokering the sale of kidneys for 10 years.

Court-authorised search warrants were also being executed approximately 20 locations in New Jersey and New York, to recover, among other things, large sums of cash and other evidence of criminal conduct. Additionally, 28 seizure warrants were being executed against bank accounts in the names of the money laundering defendants and entities they control.