By Jean Mikle
Asbury Park Press
July 23, 2009
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090723/NEWS/90723016
An Ocean County assemblyman, two Monmouth County rabbis and a Lakewood housing official were among the 44 people charged Thursday in a sweeping federal probe into political corruption, international money laundering and the trafficking of human kidneys.
The raid that targeted Ocean, Monmouth and Hudson counties, as well as Brooklyn, N.Y., ensnared two distinct groups: public officials accused of extorting thousands of dollars in bribes, and rabbis accused of using Jewish charities they controlled to launder millions of dollars.
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| Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt of Waretown is brought into the Barry Lee Bush Building in Newark as one of the 44 people arrested in a major federal investigation of corruption. Photo by Michael Sypniewski |
"The arrests underscore more than ever the pervasive nature of corruption in the state," Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra Jr. said. "Corruption was a way of life" for the public officials. "They existed in an ethics-free zone."
As for the accused religious leaders, Marra said the rabbis acted as "crime bosses." They typically charged a fee of 5 to 10 percent for each money-laundering transaction, Marra said.
"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 investigation division. "Corruption is a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state."
Meanwhile, state Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria abruptly resigned yesterday after FBI agents executed a search warrant at his Bayonne home and his office. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Money laundering
Federal officials said the investigation initially focused on an international money-laundering network that operated in Deal, Brooklyn and Israel.
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| From left: Hoboken Mayor Peter J. Cammarano III, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell and Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, D-Hudson. |
Investigators were assisted by a cooperating witness identified by sources as Ocean Township resident Solomon Dwek, 36, the disgraced real estate mogul who was arrested by the FBI in 2006 on bank fraud charges.
By July 2007, Dwek was also helping the FBI with an investigation into official corruption in Hudson County, where he posed as a developer and the owner of a tile business who wanted to build high rises and other projects and get public contracts in Hudson County schools.
He was eventually introduced to a web of public officials, council and mayoral candidates, and their associates, who took bribes in return for pledging their assistance in getting Dwek's projects approved or in steering contracts to him, according to Marra.
Officials arrested include:
• Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt, 44, R-Ocean, who took $10,000 in bribes to help smooth the way for a Waretown development, according to the FBI. The development was never built.
• Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, 60, D-Hudson, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, 32, Ridgefield Mayor Anthony R. Suarez, 42, and Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, 64. They are all accused of accepting thousands in bribes.
• Jeffrey Williamson, 57, of Lakewood, a Lakewood housing inspector charged with accepting more than $16,000 in bribes from the cooperating witness to provide lenient inspections on rental and other properties owned by the witness in Lakewood. Williamson also allowed the witness to use a residence in Lakewood as a commercial office.
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| Lakewood housing inspector Jeffrey Williamson is brought to Newark for arrest on charges of accepting bribes. Photo by Michael Sypniewski |
• Charles "Shaul" Amon, 33, of Lakewood, who had previously worked for the cooperating witness as a property manager, aided in the Lakewood bribery scheme by introducing the witness to Williamson.
• Denis Jaslow, 46, of Wall, an investigator for the Hudson County Board of Elections, is charged with accepting $2,500 in bribes relating to a development in Jersey City, but complained that he wanted a $5,000 pay-off.
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The U.S. Attorney said five rabbis from the Syrian Jewish and Hasidic communities laundered about $3 million for the cooperating witness in the past two years. Religious leaders arrested include:
• Edmund Nahum, 56, of Deal, principal rabbi at Deal Synagogue in Deal, is charged with laundering $185,000 by accepting "dirty" checks from the cooperating witness and exchanging them for clean checks from his own charitable organization as well as a non-profit run by Saul J. Kassin, 87, the chief rabbi of Sharee Zion in Brooklyn. Kassin is considered the spiritual leader of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States.
In one secretly recorded conversation, Nahum tells the cooperating witness that he should launder his money through a number of rabbis. "The more it's spread the better," Nahum said, according to the criminal complaint.
Kassin's lawyer, Robert G. Stahl, said his client is innocent. He said he "remains confident that the truth will come out and he will be cleared."
Those charged include:
• Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, R-Ocean, charged with accepting a $10,000 bribe.
Jeffrey Williamson, 57, a Lakewood housing inspector charged with accepting more than $16,000 in bribes.
• Eliahu Ben Haim of Long Branch, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.
• Edmund Nahum of Deal, the principal rabbi of Deal Synagogue, charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.
• Peter Cammarano III, the newly elected mayor of Hoboken and an attorney, charged with accepting $25,000 in cash bribes, including $10,000 last Thursday, from an undercover cooperating witness.
• Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, D-Hudson, and recent mayoral candidate in JerseyCity, charged along with an aide of taking $15,000 in bribes to help get approvals from high-level state agency officials for building projects.
• Dennis Elwell, mayor of Secaucus, charged with taking a $10,000 cash bribe.
• Anthony Suarez, mayor of Ridgefield and an attorney, charged with agreeing to accept a $10,000 corrupt cash payment for his legal defense fund.
• Louis Manzo, the recent unsuccessful challenger in the Jersey City mayoral election and
former assemblyman, and his brother and political advisor Robert Manzo, both with
taking $27,500 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 $20,000 in conduit campaign contributions and other self-dealing in her official
capacity.
• 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.
• 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.
• Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, R-Ocean, charged with accepting a $10,000 bribe.
Jeffrey Williamson, 57, a Lakewood housing inspector charged with accepting more than $16,000 in bribes.
• Eliahu Ben Haim of Long Branch, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.
• Edmund Nahum of Deal, the principal rabbi of Deal Synagogue, charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity.
• Peter Cammarano III, the newly elected mayor of Hoboken and an attorney, charged with accepting $25,000 in cash bribes, including $10,000 last Thursday, from an undercover cooperating witness.
• Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, D-Hudson, and recent mayoral candidate in JerseyCity, charged along with an aide of taking $15,000 in bribes to help get approvals from high-level state agency officials for building projects.
• Dennis Elwell, mayor of Secaucus, charged with taking a $10,000 cash bribe.
• Anthony Suarez, mayor of Ridgefield and an attorney, charged with agreeing to accept a $10,000 corrupt cash payment for his legal defense fund.
• Louis Manzo, the recent unsuccessful challenger in the Jersey City mayoral election and
former assemblyman, and his brother and political advisor Robert Manzo, both with
taking $27,500 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 $20,000 in conduit campaign contributions and other self-dealing in her official
capacity.
• 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.
• 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.
• Eliahu Ben Haim, 58, of Long Branch, principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, is charged with laundering $1.5 million with the cooperating witness, and taking a 10 percent fee for each transaction.
Ben Haim's source for the cash was an Israeli who, for a 1.5 percent fee, supplied money through intermediary "cash houses," run by other defendants who were arrested.
Some of the charities listed in the complaints may be legitimate, but others appear to have been set up to launder funds, Marra said.
Organ sales
Also arrested was Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 58, a Brooklyn man who was charged with conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant, at a cost of $160,000 to the transplant recipient.
According to the criminal complaint, Rosenbaum said he had been brokering the sale of kidneys for 10 years.
Acting U.S. Attorney Marra said the arrests began before 6 a.m. Thursday. More than 300 agents from the FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division took part in the raids at 54 locations.
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"This is not about politics, and this is certainly not about religion," Marra said. He said the victims of the crimes were "the honest citizens of this state."
Marra called the money-laundering case "unprecedented" in the "number and prominence of the individuals involved."
Political reaction
Gov. Jon S. Corzine called the charges against the 44 people "outrageous."
"My administration will not tolerate, nor has it tolerated, the kind of public corruption unveiled today," Corzine said.
Chris Christie, the Republican running against Corzine in the governor's race, said, "It's a tragic day for the people of New Jersey to have their public officials once again so drastically and dramatically disappoint them."
Christie, the former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey who has prosecuted more than 100 political corruption cases, said ". . . The culture of corruption in this state, unfortunately, is still there."
Thursday's arrests were the third phase of the FBI's "Operation Bid Rig" investigation that began in Monmouth and Ocean counties. The initial Bid Rig investigation became public in 2002 with the guilty plea of Ocean Township Mayor Terrence Weldon, who admitted extorting cash from developers to influence approval of projects.
The second Bid Rig phase resulted in the arrests in February 2005 of 11 sitting and former mayors and other elected officials in Monmouth County. Those public officials took bribes from someone they believed was a contractor and money launderer seeking municipal work but who was actually an undercover cooperating witness.
Investigators were assisted by a cooperating witness identified by sources as Ocean Township resident Solomon Dwek, 36, the disgraced real estate mogul who was arrested by the FBI in 2006 on bank fraud charges.
By July 2007, Dwek was also helping the FBI with an investigation into official corruption in Hudson County, where he posed as a developer and the owner of a tile business who wanted to build high rises and other projects and get public contracts in Hudson County schools.
He was eventually introduced to a web of public officials, council and mayoral candidates, and their associates, who took bribes in return for pledging their assistance in getting Dwek's projects approved or in steering contracts to him, according to Marra.
Officials arrested include:
• Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt, 44, R-Ocean, who took $10,000 in bribes to help smooth the way for a Waretown development, according to the FBI. The development was never built.
• Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, 60, D-Hudson, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, 32, Ridgefield Mayor Anthony R. Suarez, 42, and Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, 64. They are all accused of accepting thousands in bribes.
• Jeffrey Williamson, 57, of Lakewood, a Lakewood housing inspector charged with accepting more than $16,000 in bribes from the cooperating witness to provide lenient inspections on rental and other properties owned by the witness in Lakewood. Williamson also allowed the witness to use a residence in Lakewood as a commercial office.
• Charles "Shaul" Amon, 33, of Lakewood, who had previously worked for the cooperating witness as a property manager, aided in the Lakewood bribery scheme by introducing the witness to Williamson.
• Denis Jaslow, 46, of Wall, an investigator for the Hudson County Board of Elections, is charged with accepting $2,500 in bribes relating to a development in Jersey City, but complained that he wanted a $5,000 pay-off.
The U.S. Attorney said five rabbis from the Syrian Jewish and Hasidic communities laundered about $3 million for the cooperating witness in the past two years. Religious leaders arrested include:
• Edmund Nahum, 56, of Deal, principal rabbi at Deal Synagogue in Deal, is charged with laundering $185,000 by accepting "dirty" checks from the cooperating witness and exchanging them for clean checks from his own charitable organization as well as a non-profit run by Saul J. Kassin, 87, the chief rabbi of Sharee Zion in Brooklyn. Kassin is considered the spiritual leader of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States.
In one secretly recorded conversation, Nahum tells the cooperating witness that he should launder his money through a number of rabbis. "The more it's spread the better," Nahum said, according to the criminal complaint.
Kassin's lawyer, Robert G. Stahl, said his client is innocent. He said he "remains confident that the truth will come out and he will be cleared."
• Eliahu Ben Haim, 58, of Long Branch, principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, is charged with laundering $1.5 million with the cooperating witness, and taking a 10 percent fee for each transaction.
Ben Haim's source for the cash was an Israeli who, for a 1.5 percent fee, supplied money through intermediary "cash houses," run by other defendants who were arrested.
Some of the charities listed in the complaints may be legitimate, but others appear to have been set up to launder funds, Marra said.
Organ sales
Also arrested was Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 58, a Brooklyn man who was charged with conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant, at a cost of $160,000 to the transplant recipient.
According to the criminal complaint, Rosenbaum said he had been brokering the sale of kidneys for 10 years.
Acting U.S. Attorney Marra said the arrests began before 6 a.m. Thursday. More than 300 agents from the FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division took part in the raids at 54 locations.
"This is not about politics, and this is certainly not about religion," Marra said. He said the victims of the crimes were "the honest citizens of this state."
Quantcast
Marra called the money-laundering case "unprecedented" in the "number and prominence of the individuals involved."
Gov. Jon S. Corzine called the charges against the 44 people "outrageous."
"My administration will not tolerate, nor has it tolerated, the kind of public corruption unveiled today," Corzine said.
Chris Christie, the Republican running against Corzine in the governor's race, said, "It's a tragic day for the people of New Jersey to have their public officials once again so drastically and dramatically disappoint them."
Christie, the former U.S. Attorney for New Jersey who has prosecuted more than 100 political corruption cases, said ". . . The culture of corruption in this state, unfortunately, is still there."
Thursday's arrests were the third phase of the FBI's "Operation Bid Rig" investigation that began in Monmouth and Ocean counties. The initial Bid Rig investigation became public in 2002 with the guilty plea of Ocean Township Mayor Terrence Weldon, who admitted extorting cash from developers to influence approval of projects.
The second Bid Rig phase resulted in the arrests in February 2005 of 11 sitting and former mayors and other elected officials in Monmouth County. Those public officials took bribes from someone they believed was a contractor and money launderer seeking municipal work but who was actually an undercover cooperating witness.
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