Are religion and corruption buddies ?......Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Jews..you name it..they all seem to have a fair share of the same bad apples.
In fact , a bit too many. Greed, deception, cheating and illegal activities are all fair game.!
One rabbi laundered $3 million for just one person, who as it turned out was an undercover informant for the FBI.
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Massive corruption and money-laundering scandal unfolds in New Jersey
Malaysia Sun
Thursday 23rd July, 2009
A massive corruption and money-laundering scandal is unfolding in New Jersey, where 44 people including a large number of city and state government officials, and prominent rabbis, have been arrested and face serious charges. (Click on photo for full story).
Dozens of New Jersey city and state government officials, and rabbis have been arrested in a major operation underway in New Jersey.
Government and city officials are being charged with bribery, while several rabbis are being accused of money-laundering carried out at synagogues, using tax-exempt charitable organizations.
The United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, in conjunction with the FBI, has arrested 44 people so far, including Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano III, New Jersey Assembly members Daniel Van Pelt and L. Harvey Smith, mayors of Secaucus and Ridgefield, a deputy mayor, city council members, housing, planning and zoning officials, building inspectors, political candidates, and five rabbis including the national leader of the Syrian Jewish community.
Local and state government officials have been netted in a probe known as "Operation Bid Rig," while the rabbis have been caught up by their association with those officials.
The rabbis, who include Saul Kassin, chief rabbi of a large Syrian Jewish synagogue in Brooklyn, Eliahu Ben Haim, principal rabbi of a synagogue in Deal, Edmund Nahum, principal rabbi of another synagogue in Deal, and Mordchai Fish, a rabbi at a synagogue in Brooklyn, are being accused of money-laundering, bankruptcy fraud, bank fraud, and trafficking in counterfeit goods.
In some cases they accepted large sums of money as donations to charities they had set up, and then wrote cheques for lesser amounts and handed them back to donors. One rabbi laundered $3 million for just one person, who as it turned out was an undercover informant for the FBI.
"These complaints paint a disgraceful picture of religious leaders heading money-laundering crews, acting as crime bosses. They used purported charities as vehicles for laundering millions of dollars in illicit funds," Acting United States Attorney, Ralph J. Marra, Jr. said at a packed press conference Thursday.
Marra outlined how more than $650,000 in bribes was paid to city and state government officials. "And the politicians willingly put themselves up for sale," he said.
The investigation also led to Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, of Brooklyn, being charged with conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant. According to the charge sheet, Rosenbaum admitted he had been brokering the sale of kidneys for ten 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," Marra said.
Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of the FBI's office in Newark told the press conference, "The list of names and titles of those arrested today sounds like a roster for a community leaders meeting. Sadly these prominent individuals were not in a meeting room but were in the FBI booking room this morning."
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine said in a press statement released Thursday, "Any corruption is unacceptable anywhere, anytime, by anybody. The scale of corruption we're seeing as this unfolds is simply outrageous and cannot be tolerated."
Ed Kahrer, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's white collar crime and public corruption program in New Jersey said, "New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation. It has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture."
In fact , a bit too many. Greed, deception, cheating and illegal activities are all fair game.!
One rabbi laundered $3 million for just one person, who as it turned out was an undercover informant for the FBI.
=======
Massive corruption and money-laundering scandal unfolds in New Jersey
Malaysia Sun
Thursday 23rd July, 2009
A massive corruption and money-laundering scandal is unfolding in New Jersey, where 44 people including a large number of city and state government officials, and prominent rabbis, have been arrested and face serious charges. (Click on photo for full story).
Dozens of New Jersey city and state government officials, and rabbis have been arrested in a major operation underway in New Jersey.
Government and city officials are being charged with bribery, while several rabbis are being accused of money-laundering carried out at synagogues, using tax-exempt charitable organizations.
The United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, in conjunction with the FBI, has arrested 44 people so far, including Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano III, New Jersey Assembly members Daniel Van Pelt and L. Harvey Smith, mayors of Secaucus and Ridgefield, a deputy mayor, city council members, housing, planning and zoning officials, building inspectors, political candidates, and five rabbis including the national leader of the Syrian Jewish community.
Local and state government officials have been netted in a probe known as "Operation Bid Rig," while the rabbis have been caught up by their association with those officials.
The rabbis, who include Saul Kassin, chief rabbi of a large Syrian Jewish synagogue in Brooklyn, Eliahu Ben Haim, principal rabbi of a synagogue in Deal, Edmund Nahum, principal rabbi of another synagogue in Deal, and Mordchai Fish, a rabbi at a synagogue in Brooklyn, are being accused of money-laundering, bankruptcy fraud, bank fraud, and trafficking in counterfeit goods.
In some cases they accepted large sums of money as donations to charities they had set up, and then wrote cheques for lesser amounts and handed them back to donors. One rabbi laundered $3 million for just one person, who as it turned out was an undercover informant for the FBI.
"These complaints paint a disgraceful picture of religious leaders heading money-laundering crews, acting as crime bosses. They used purported charities as vehicles for laundering millions of dollars in illicit funds," Acting United States Attorney, Ralph J. Marra, Jr. said at a packed press conference Thursday.
Marra outlined how more than $650,000 in bribes was paid to city and state government officials. "And the politicians willingly put themselves up for sale," he said.
The investigation also led to Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, of Brooklyn, being charged with conspiring to broker the sale of a human kidney for a transplant. According to the charge sheet, Rosenbaum admitted he had been brokering the sale of kidneys for ten 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," Marra said.
Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of the FBI's office in Newark told the press conference, "The list of names and titles of those arrested today sounds like a roster for a community leaders meeting. Sadly these prominent individuals were not in a meeting room but were in the FBI booking room this morning."
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine said in a press statement released Thursday, "Any corruption is unacceptable anywhere, anytime, by anybody. The scale of corruption we're seeing as this unfolds is simply outrageous and cannot be tolerated."
Ed Kahrer, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's white collar crime and public corruption program in New Jersey said, "New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation. It has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture."
