Hoboken Mayor Arrested: NJ Politicians in FBI Corruption Bust

by Jordan Yerman | July 23, 2009 at 06:25 am

3903 views | 64 Recommendations | 11 comments

Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano was arrested today, along with Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega Jr., and State Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt , as well as Rabbi Saul Kassin and several others connected with Deal Yeshiva, in a large-scale FBI money-laundering and public corruption bust. The investigation leading up to today has been going on for two years. Peter Cammarano, arrested today, has only been mayor of Hoboken for just over a month.

At least 44 people were arrested, including rabbis associated with Deal Yeshiva, which has schools in West Long Branch and Ocean Township. The list of those arrested also includes several former and would-be public officials, including former Assemblyman Louis Manzo and Jersey CIty Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini.

Also caught in the dragnet was Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, a Brooklyn man accused of trafficking human kidneys (also see below).

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.

A press conference is expected later today.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who has fought corruption in New Jersey's largest city, says it's "an unbelievable morning so far."

The probe also involves international trafficking in body parts, sources said.

One of the arrested, Rabbi Saul Kassin, is the son of Jacob Kassin, the onetime chief rabbi of the Syrian Sephardic community in Deal. Marra said the clergy members "cloaked their extensive criminal activity behind a facade of rectitude."

One Brooklyn man stood out in the sweeping list of arrest - Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, accused of trafficking in human organs. For 10 years, Rosenbaum convinced vulnerable people to donate their kidneys for $10,000 and then sold them for $160,000 to the recipients, prosecutors said

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Pythiian1

at 09:54 on July 23rd, 2009

According to the N.J. Star Ledger, additional names to Jordan's list of those officials that have been arrested, are Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, Assemblyman Lou Manzo, Judge Guy Catrillo, and former Jersey City Mayor L. Harvey Smith.

No indictments have been released, though court appearances are expected later today in U.S. District Court in Newark. Nearly 20 people have already been led into the FBI building in Newark as the sweep continues to unfold in two states.

Agents also raided religious institutions to make arrests and collect information.

The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office and the IRS took out at least three boxes from the Deal Yeshiva, as students were arriving at school. The Deal Yeshiva, on the corner of Brighton and Norwood avenues, is a prestigious religious school in town.

Authorities also searched the Ohel Yaacob synagogue on Ocean Avenue in Deal and removed several boxes.

Patio Lighting (not verified)

at 08:52 on July 23rd, 2009

i read good story and photo he arrested

http://news.limauais.com/photo-hoboken-mayor-peter-j-cammarano-iii-and-secaucus-mayor-dennis-elwell-arrested-in-broad-inquiry-on-corruption/

truthcaster

at 09:47 on July 23rd, 2009

My local newscast described the perpetrators as open and blatant in their commission of the crime. It goes to show, things like these are more commonplace that what was previously expected, and do not happen only in third world countries.

158

at 11:35 on July 23rd, 2009

Good report.

This will be a big story.

politisite

at 12:17 on July 23rd, 2009

I am very glad that folks are investigating our public servants as some of them are serving themselves. Thanks for the story

Barbara McPherson

at 12:27 on July 23rd, 2009

There should be a special place in hell for those who traffic in human organs.

Pythiian1

at 13:43 on July 23rd, 2009

Additional details to dovetail Jordan's article:

Federal prosecutors say five highly-placed rabbis in New York and New Jersey were also arrested, including Eliahu Ben Haim, of Long Branch, N.J., Saul Kassin and Mordchai Fish of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Edmund Nahum, of Deal, N.J. Fish’s brother, also a rabbi, was charged as well.

All five rabbis have been charged with money laundering of proceeds derived from criminal activity, with synagogues allegedly “cleaning up” dirty money in exchange for fees.

Investigators are currently searching for cash and other evidence at approximately 20 locations in New York and New Jersey, according to a Department of Justice press release. The document also says federal investigators are in the process of seizing 28 bank accounts controlled by the money laundering defendants.

In one case, investigators say Eliahu Ben Haim, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, N.J., received checks ranging from tens of thousands to $160,000. In order to handle the heavy flow of money, prosecutors say Haim farmed out the money laundering to a network of rabbis in New York and New Jersey, who would also use accounts associated with their synagogues to disguise the transactions.

Pythiian1

at 13:56 on July 23rd, 2009

The New Jersey Star Ledger has added more names to today's round-up by the US Attorney:

The housing inspector John Guarini, deputy director of the Department of Health and Human Services Maher A. Khalil, Firefighter Michael Manzo.

Governor Corzine's Community Affairs Commissioner, Joseph Doria. Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, who is also an attorney, is charged with agreeing to accept an illegal $10,000 cash payment for his legal defense fund.

The county employees include: Affirmative Action Officer Edward Cheatam, Board of Election investigator Dennis Jaslow.

Apparently, Mr. Mariano Vega has another title, Director of Parks.

caj1

at 15:43 on July 23rd, 2009

New Jersey Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria has submitted his resignation today to Gov. Corzine. It was accepted, needless to say by the governor.

Rory Cripps

at 14:00 on July 23rd, 2009

What a surprising development! Minchia! A New Jersey mayor involved with something like this. Imagine that!

Rory Cripps

at 15:35 on July 23rd, 2009

And y'all thought that The Sopranos was just another TV show and that the Mob was put out of commission . . . .

At the center of the two investigations was a single "cooperating witness" who directed by the investigators attempted to bribe officials and engage others in money laundering schemes.

"Defendant Cammarano assured the CW [cooperating witness] that '[y]ou can put your faith in me.' Cammarano assured the CW that 'I promise you . . . you're gonna be, you're gonna be treated like a friend.' [I]f the CW was to 'come over here, you know, and I wanna do, eh, I need a zone change, I need something, I wanna make sure that I, you know, you, you're my man.' "

' " . . . you're gonna be, you're gonna be, treated like a friend." ' A person familiar with the matter said the witness is an Orthodox Jewish real-estate developer named Solomon Dwek, a 36-year-old religious-school head and philanthropist from Ocean Township. In 2006, he was arrested and charged with defrauding PNC Bank out of $25 million. He was forced to seek bankruptcy protection for himself and his companies, which owned about 300 residential and commercial properties.

Mr. Dwek remained free on a $10 million bond. A lawyer for Mr. Dwek couldn't be reached for comment.

The defendants were brought into court in Newark Thursday afternoon in handcuffs with chains on their feet. They entered the small courtroom, which was crowded to capacity, in groups of 12 and were seated at times in the jury box.

To ensnare most of the defendants, the FBI used Mr. Dwek to attempt to bribe public officials in New Jersey, including several in Hoboken and Jersey City, according to a person familiar with the matter. The probe roped in several other real-estate developers who also wanted to bribe officials.

Mr. Cammarano, a 32-year-old who became Hoboken mayor on July 1, allegedly agreed to take $10,000 in bribes from the cooperating witness in exchange for supporting the developer's future plans in Hoboken, the once-hardscrabble, now gentrified hometown of Frank Sinatra across the river from Manhattan. The alleged bribes occurred during Mr. Cammarano's mayoral campaign earlier this year, according to the FBI's complaint, which also charged an associate of Mr. Cammarano, who allegedly served as a middleman and took cash for him.

According to Mr. Marra, on May 19, before he was elected mayor of Hoboken, Mr. Cammarano said at a diner: "I could be indicted and still get 85% to 95% of the vote."

Mr. Dwek was also the key to the money-laundering probe, according to the person familiar with the matter. Under the FBI's direction, Mr. Dwek represented himself as someone who engaged in illegal businesses and schemes including bank fraud, trafficking in counterfeit goods and concealing assets and monies in connection with bankruptcy proceedings.

In 2007, for example, Eliahu Ben Haim, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob, a synagogue in the shore community of Deal, accepted a $50,000 check from the cooperating witness, which was drawn from an account held by a fictitious company set up by the FBI "for the purpose of enabling [the cooperating witness] to launder money represented to be the proceeds of illegal activities," according to one criminal complaint. Mr. Ben Haim was named as a co-conspirator in court documents. The check was made payable to one of Mr. Ben Haim's charitable organizations "with the expectation that the proceeds would be returned to the [cooperating witness] at a later date, minus a ten percent fee to be retained by Co-conspirator Ben Haim."

Besides Mr. Ben Haim, the charged rabbis include Edmond Nahum, the principal rabbi of Deal Synagogue; Saul Kassin, a rabbi at Shaare Zion Congregation in the New York borough of Brooklyn; Mordchai Fish, a rabbi at a Brooklyn synagogue, Congregation Sheves Achim; and his brother, Lavel Schwartz, also a rabbi.

Women who answered the phones at Ohel Yaacob and Shaare Zion both declined to comment.

The operation allegedly run by the rabbis laundered about $3 million for Mr. Dwek since June 2007, according to the court documents and a person familiar with the matter. The rabbis used charitable, nonprofit entities connected to their synagogues to "wash" money they understood came from criminal activity, prosecutors alleged.

"The rings were international in scope, connected to Deal, N.J., Brooklyn, N.Y., Israel and Switzerland," said Mr. Marra, the U.S. attorney, at the news conference. "They trafficked in the cleaning of dirty money all across the world."

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn was charged separately 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 FBI's complaint, Mr. Rosenbaum said he had been brokering the sale of kidneys for 10 years. Mr. Rosenbaum couldn't be reached for comment. A relative of Mr. Rosenbaum who answered the phone at an address belonging to him declined to comment.

Ed Kahrer, the supervising FBI agent on the case, said the probe began in July 1999. The investigations using Mr. Dwek began in mid-2007. A confidential informant, independently verified as Mr. Dwek, often wore a wire and was followed by FBI agents who videotaped his encounters with the probe's targets, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Prosecutors said the bribe-taking by public officials was connected to their fund-raising efforts in heavily contested mayoral and city-council campaigns. The bribes were often parceled out to straw donors, who wrote checks in their names or businesses to the campaigns in amounts that complied with legal limits on individual donations, prosecutors alleged. Other bribe recipients took cash for direct personal use and benefit, prosecutors said. Some of the individuals who were charged with taking bribes from Mr. Dwek didn't win their elections.

New Jersey has been rife with political corruption for decades. Chris Christie, a Republican and former federal prosecutor, is campaigning for governor citing his long track record of winning convictions of public officials.

Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat who is running for re-election this year against Mr. Christie, campaigned four years ago promising to quash corruption in the state. A package of proposed legislative fixes have been held up in the legislature, and Mr. Corzine has been subject to withering criticism by voters who say he failed to act on his promise.

In a move that appears to be related to the investigation, Mr. Corzine said he asked for and received the resignation of Joseph V. Doria Jr., his commissioner of community affairs. A former state Assembly speaker, Mr. Doria had purview over local-government services. He also has been leading the state Redevelopment Authority and the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. Mr. Doria served as mayor of Bayonne, which lies just to the south of Jersey City, for nine years.