Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Boston Globe Can't See the New Jersey Shore

Because of the dancing Israelis, right?

"The view from Jersey"

Vacationing there and they missed this (
a Slow Saturday Special to start you off)?

"Indicted New Jersey mayor resigns after 3 weeks on job; He is accused of taking bribes" by Beth DeFalco and Samantha Henry, Associated Press | August 1, 2009

HOBOKEN, N.J. - A sweeping federal corruption probe that resulted in the arrests of 44 people, including rabbis and dozens of public officials....

--more--"

That's as far as the AmeriKan MSM will go? They make the for point me.

"North Jersey: epicenter of 'Kosher Nostra' and Mossad activity

by Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

(WMR) -- The recent rolling up of a Syrian Jewish criminal syndicate that was involved in buying off local elected and appointed government officials in north Jersey is but one in a long series of law enforcement operations directed, sometimes unsuccessfully due to the immense power of the Israel Lobby in the United States, against Jewish criminal networks in the New Jersey-New York region. These criminal networks also have one important thing in common: close connections to Israeli politicians and businessmen.

The FBI used a confidential witness to identify a number of Syrian Jewish rabbis who were using synagogues and yeshivas as money laundering fronts reportedly for the illegal sale of knock-off designer handbags and even human organs. The witness, Solomon Dwek, is a major real estate developer and gambling boat owner who was arrested in 2006 for trying to pass a bad check and defraud PNC Bank of $25 million. Dwek is a member of the powerful Syrian Jewish clan in New Jersey and New York, which has been called the SY Empire” and the “Dwek clan.”

Dwek’s father, Isaac Dwek, is a rabbi of a synagogue and yeshiva school in the Syrian Jewish enclave of Deal, New Jersey, on the Jersey shore. Deal is a nexus for the radical Israeli right that is opposed to any peace agreement with the Palestinians and the ultra-orthodox Israeli Shas Party, a member of the current Israeli coalition government, has held fundraisers in Deal. The Syrian Jewish community is also heavily involved in worldwide Chabad Houses, which WMR has previously linked to drug smuggling and money laundering, particularly in Mumbai, Bangkok, and other Asian cities. In 1992, the Syrian government lifted travel restrictions and limits on the disposition of property for the Syrian Jewish community. Syrian Jews were relatively free to travel, including to the United States.

Among the rabbis arrested was Saul Kassin, the 87-year-old chief rabbi of the 80,000-member Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn and New Jersey. Rabbis from Brooklyn and Deal were also arrested for money laundering operations that used the tax-exempt status of Jewish religious organizations to avoid detection and reporting to the government.

The mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus, and Ridgefield were also arrested as part of the bribery probe of the Syrian Jewish syndicate, as well as a Jersey City state assemblyman and an Ocean Township mayor and assemblyman. A member of New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s cabinet was also arrested, along with appointed officials in Bayonne, Hoboken, and Jersey City.

The latest reported criminal activity among the region’s Syrian Jewish community is nothing new. One prominent member of the community, which traces its origins back to the Syrian city of Aleppo, was Eddie Antar, the owner of a regional chain of consumer electronics stories called “Crazy Eddie’s,” who fled the United States for Israel after being indicted for fraud. Antar had laundered some $80 million through Panamanian and Israeli banks, much of it ending up at the Bank Leumi in Tel Aviv, Swiss banks, a “folding tent” Liberian company, and a Liechtenstein foundation. Antar used a fake passport and the alias of David Jacob Levi Cohen to enter Israel. Antar also used the alias of Alexander Stewart. Antar was eventually arrested near Tel Aviv and was extradited back to the United States where he eventually received an eight-year prison sentence. The chief federal prosecutor against Antar was Michael Chertoff.

Syrian-Jewish businessman Norman Jemal, the head of another influential Syrian-Jewish family and a consumer electronics competitor of Crazy Eddie, saw his store chain Nobody Beats the Wiz, collapse into bankruptcy in 2003.

Another prominent Syrian Jew was Edmond Safra who founded Banco Safra in Brazil in 1955. The Beirut-based Safra family had long served as important bankers for the Ottoman Empire. Safra eventually became a billionaire banking and investment tycoon. Safra founded the Republic National Bank in New York in 1966. In 1999, Safra was killed in an arson attack on his Monte Carlo home. Safra’s U.S.-born nurse, Ted Maher, a former U.S. Army Green Beret, was arrested and charged with starting the fire but his conviction was overturned. Safra’s killer or killers still remain at large. Safra’s security chief, Shmuile Cohen, had recruited a number of Israeli military special forces personnel to guard Safra, but Shmule and the guards were given the night off by Safra’s wife. Before his death, Safra was negotiating the sale of Republic Bank to HSBC. Safra was also cooperating with the FBI in its probe of the use of U.S. banks by the Russian-Israeli mafia to launder billions of dollars. There is speculation that Safra was murdered by the Russian-Israeli mob to keep him from divulging more details of their operations to the FBI.

After the recent bust of prominent Syrian-Jews in New Jersey and New York, the FBI and Justice Department revealed their investigation had lasted for 10 years. The Safra murder occurred 10 years prior to the recent corruption arrests. WMR has learned that the FBI is actually probing a much bigger criminal syndicate, one that involves more powerful politicians and businessmen involved in real estate and financial services in New York and New Jersey. The arrest of mayors, other small-time politicians, and rabbis may lead to higher-ups if there is cooperation from those already arrested from plea deals with prosecutors.

One prominent member of the Syrian Jewish community is Joseph Cayre, the real estate business partner of Larry Silverstein and Lloyd Goldman in the pre-9/11 lease of the World Trade Center from the New York-New Jersey Port Authority and the subsequent redevelopment of the “Ground Zero” site. Silverstein, Cayre, Goldman, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg have recently been feuding with the Port Authority over the terms of the redevelopment scheme. Part of the redevelopment strategy is central to the “Cornerstones Project,” a project to establish four mega-entertainment and sports complexes in Manhattan connected to two other such centers on Coney Island and at the Meadowlands Xanadu entertainment and shopping complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, next to Secaucus. The Xanadu project is being underwritten by Goldman Sachs and is a favorite of Governor Corzine, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs.

In the criminal complaint against Rabbi Eliahu “Eli” Ben Haim of the Ohel Yaacob congregation in Deal, a co-conspirator only identified as “I.M.,” who is based in Israel and was a principal source of cash for Ben Haim, is cited. It is odd that “I.M.” is only identified by initials when two other co-conspirators of Ben Haim are identified by their full names: Schmulik Cohen of Brooklyn and Arye Weiss, also of Brooklyn. “I.M.”s modus operandi is described in the criminal complaint:

“Defendant BEN HAIM also mentioned that he owed another individual $495,000. This individual, according to defendant BEN HAIM, had wired money from Hong Kong to Israel, and stated that ‘he has money in Hong Kong from his -- the kickbacks from the factories.’ Defendant BEN HAIM also further described the activities of Coconspirator I.M. in the following terms: ‘the head contact’s in Israel . . . He has different people, he has, . . . he has a hundred cus-, no customer in New York [u/i] [unintelligible] money in Israel [u/i] real estate investments, they, they want to hide their money. They don’t want it to show. So they give the cash here to him and he gives me the cash . . . You see the merry-go-round? This guy’s been doing it for 20, 30 years.’ Defendant BEN HAIM also indicated that he would pick up cash, as coordinated by Coconspirator I.M., at locations in Brooklyn. The CW [confidential witness] offered to pick up the cash that defendant BEN HAIM anticipated would be available to him the following week.”

The complaint provides even greater details of “I.M.’s” money laundering activities:

“Defendant BEN HAIM told the CW about ‘customers from two, three years ago that are calling me,’ and indicated that “[t]hat’s a signal that the market is tight.’ Defendant BEN HAIM also discussed his source for cash, Coconspirator I.M., and stated that he spoke to Coconspirator I.M. ‘[e]very day - every other day.’ Referring to Coconspirator I.M., defendant BEN HAIM then asked the CW ‘[d]id you know that he had me in the last 4 years send out wires every time to a different place in the world to a different name? It’s unbelievable. I never saw anything like it.’ When the CW asked whether defendant BEN HAIM was referring to different locations in only Israel, defendant BEN HAIM replied ‘[n]o, all over the world . . . All over the world. From Australia to New Zealand to Uganda. I mean [u/i] every country imaginable. Turkey, you can’t believe it. . . . All different names. It’s never the same name. . . . Switzerland, everywhere, France, everywhere, Spain. . . . China, Japan.’ Defendant BEN HAIM also explained that the market for cash was tight ‘only in the beginning of the year and the end of the year.’”

It appears that the FBI was being careful about naming “I.M.” due to his extensive contacts from Israel to countries around the world, an indication that “I.M.,” unlike the rabbis and the New Jersey politicos, is a big fry who is laundering large sums of money, possibly from gambling operations, through synagogues and Jewish charities. It is known that Solomon Dwek was involved in a casino boat business and that jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff was similarly involved in taking control of Sun Cruz Casino boats in Florida. Abramoff also funded radical Israeli settler movements on the West Bank.

WMR has learned from a reliable source that the identity of “I.M,,” if revealed, would serve as a body blow to the Likud government of Netanyahu and his major coalition partners, Yisrael Beiteinu of extreme right-wing Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the ultra-orthodox Shas Party. The revelation of “I.M.’s” identity, we are told, will also provide encouragement to the Palestinians to stand their ground against Israeli encroachment in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. In fact, the timing of the recent arrests in New Jersey and New York may be directly tied to Israel’s move to build a residential complex in east Jerusalem over the objections of President Barack Obama.

On July 26, 2009, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Rabbi David Yosef, the son of Shas spiritual leader and former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, left the Long Branch, New Jersey, home of Ben-Haim for Israel just hours before the FBI raid that saw the arrest of Ben-Haim. In May, Aryeh Deri visited the Syrian-Jewish community in the New York-New Jersey region seeking funds for a new political party. Deri’s successor as the head of Shas, Eliyahu “Eli” Yishai, currently serves as interior minister and a deputy prime minister of Israel.

Ovadia Yosef recently condemned President Barack Obama for pressuring Israel on the freeze of settlements. Yosef also called for the rebuilding of the Jewish temple on the site of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam’s holiest sites. Yosef complained that there “are Arabs there.”

The North Jersey/Brooklyn area has long been a hub for intelligence and criminal activities by Israeli nationals. In many cases, those arrested have gotten off with light or no sentences. WMR has reported extensively on these, including:

  • On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, New Jersey police arrested five Israeli employees of Urban Moving Systems of Weehawken, New Jersey, which is nestled between Jersey City and Hoboken, near Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, next to Secaucus. The Israelis were earlier seen celebrating, high-fiving, jumping up and down, and videotaping the first and second plane attacks on the World Trade Center.
  • The five Israelis were later linked to an Israeli-owned office moving company called Urban Moving Systems headquartered in Weehawken, New Jersey at 3 West 18th Street. Another Urban Moving office was located on West 50th Street in Manhattan. Urban Moving’s owner, Dominik Otto Suter, identified by the CIA and FBI as a Mossad officer, fled to Israel shortly before he was to be re-questioned by the FBI. The five Israelis, after being jailed for five months, were quietly deported to Israel without criminal charges being filed.
  • Information Spectrum, Inc. (ISI) of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a subsidiary of the Fairfax, Virginia-based defense contractor, Anteon, took over the operation of the Jersey City police computer system that handled all incoming emergency phone calls on September 11 . . . According to Jersey City Police officials, after the emergency call system was changed from a Wang to a Windows environment, 8,000 emergency 911 system calls registered on September 11 were scrubbed from the archives. In fact, archives dating back to 1989, including those dealing with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, were similarly affected.
  • In October 2000, an Israeli veteran of the Israel Defense Force overheard a conversation between three men in the Gomel Chesed Cemetery in Newark, New Jersey. The three men speaking in Hebrew were discussing the “planes hitting the twins,” a reference to the 9/11 attacks some 11 months later. The FBI Newark office was informed of the conversation. There was no follow-up by the FBI.
  • A Syrian Jew named Rimon Alkatri was indicted by a New York City grand jury for phoning a false terrorist threat to the New York City police in May 2006. The indictment charged Alkatri with making a false terrorist threat in the first degree. Alkatri was arrested on July 31, 2006, a little over a week from the hype generated by the “great airplane liquid bombing hoax.” Alkatri, who owns the El Castillo de Oro jewelry store on Knickerbocker Avenue in Brooklyn and who arrived in the United States in 1996, was arrested by police while he was leaving his apartment in a Syrian Jewish neighborhood on East 9th Street. In May, Alkatri, using the alias Jose Rodriguez, and claiming to be from Israel, said he overheard five Syrian employees of his store use the phrase “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and that they were plotting to hide explosives in hollowed-out jewelry and perpetrate a suicide bombing in the New York subway system on the Fourth of July. Police later discovered that the five Syrian “conspirators” identified by Alkatri were not even Muslims, but Christians and Jews. Alkatri, who could have been sentenced to seven years in jail, was given a six-month sentence.
  • In 2003, Yehuda Abraham, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, global diamond dealer, and native of Afghanistan, was charged with money laundering for an Indian weapons smuggler named Hemant Lakhani who was attempting to purchase Russian portable missile launchers to bring down American passenger planes, including Air Force One, in the United States. Abraham was later convicted in the scheme that also involved a Malaysian bagman associated with the Southeast Asian Al Qaeda offshoot Jemaah Islamiya. Abraham and Lakhani conducted their meetings near Newark International Airport. Abraham was sentenced to home detention.
  • In 2003, Israeli-born Mark Brener, proprietor of Emperor’s Club VIP and three money laundering firms -- QAT Consulting Group, QAT International, and Protech Consulting -- moved from South Brunswick, New Jersey, to an affluent condo in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, with his 19-year-old girlfriend Cecil (“Ceci”) Suwal. Emperor’s Club VIP was the escort service that enmeshed New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and, which more recently is said to involve another governor, reportedly Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. Brener received a 30-month prison sentence.
  • The targeting of New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, a former mayor of Woodbridge, New Jersey, by Israeli intelligence operative Golan Cipel in a homosexual “honey trap” resulted in McGreevey’s sudden resignation from office in 2004. McGreevey appointed Cipel to a top homeland security job for the state of New Jersey. The Emperor’s Club VIP expose about Spitzer came on the same day that it was reported that emails from the McGreevey administration were erased from the state’s computer systems. Cipel today works as an independent consultant.
  • In December 1995, Israeli Interior Minister Haim Ramon barred from entering Israel six U.S. citizens, all members of the terrorist Jewish Defense League, as well as Rabbi Abraham Hecht of the Syrian Jewish community in New York, for involvement in illegal activities in Israel. Hecht had suggested that assassinated Prime Minister Rabin could have been a “moser,” a Jew who handed over Jews or Jewish property to non-Jews, and deserved the death penalty.

* * * * *

WMR has also learned from sources in China of a significant Turkish angle to the illegal Israeli-run human organ smuggling trade. Apparently, Turkish military surgeons have worked with ethnic Uighurs to harvest organs from young Chinese. The center of the human organ trade is in Israel. Recently, police in Shenzen, China raided a Uighur-run restaurant where younger customers had a habit of disappearing. Police then discovered the restaurant had a grisly secret business: that it was an organ harvesting center, operated with medical expertise from Turkish military surgeons who identified usable organs for wealthy Israelis, as well as Arab potentates. The Turkish military surgeons apparently got their start after the 1999 Izmit-Istanbul earthquake, the first major operation for the organ harvesters.

The Shenzen eatery’s refrigerators were primed for cryogenics, the storage of human organs until transport to customers. The human remains -- limbs, spines, and heads . . . were boiled down and dumped into the sewer or sold to pig farmers for slop. Bones were crushed and likewise went down the sewer pipes. Police were originally stymied in collecting evidence in their investigation of the criminal enterprise.

--MORE--"

Also related: The Russian-Israeli Mafia: Off-limits to FBI, US intelligence

Who’s behind Madoff?

Madoff, Mossad and the AmeriKan MSM

Madoff Makes the Big House

And so much more....

FLASHBACK:


"Rabbi/Government "Culture of Corruption"

"Mayors, rabbis arrested in corruption probe

"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," Marra said. The rabbis named in the criminal complaints are accused of setting up charitable tax-exempt organizations at their synagogues that they used to launder money.

"Top NJ rabbis and government leaders arrested in black market organ scandal New Jersey top government officials and religious leaders, according to MSNBC, have been arrested in connection with a supposed "major corruption and international money-laundering conspiracy." Reportedly it was also discovered that many were involved in a black market organ ring."

"Israel Kills Palestinian Boys, Steals Organs For Transplants

"The organ of last resort

"America's "disappeared": The homeless of the big cities

"FLASHBACK - Moldova's desperate organ donors

"‘I Am What You Call a Matchmaker’

"FLASHBACK - Presumed guilty

"FLASHBACK - Israeli organ traffickers shift operations to China

(Also see: China investigating illegal transplants for 17 Japanese tourist; Organ transfers for foreigners banned in '07)

"Organ Trafficking: A Fast-Expanding Black Market

"FLASHBACK - ISRAEL: Still a destination for human trafficking

"NJ official steps down amid corruption arrests The mayors of three New Jersey cities, two state legislators and several rabbis were among more than 40 people arrested Thursday in a sweeping corruption investigation that began as a probe into an international money laundering ring that trafficked in goods as diverse as human organs and fake designer handbags.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the investigation initially focused, with the help of the cooperating witness, on the money laundering network that operated between Brooklyn, Deal, N.J. and Israel. The network is alleged to have laundered tens of millions of dollars through charities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey.

This is shaping up to be a modern-day horror story.

Israelis deep into organ trafficing

Is Israel harvesting organs of Palestinian youths?

ISRAEL NOW HARVESTING PALESTINIAN BODY ORGANS

Two Haifa men sentenced to jail for organ trafficking

Anyone counting the homeless lately? Are any missing?

"Prof says she told FBI about kidney trafficking"

"Rabbi Busts Stun World's Largest Jewish Enclave Brooklyn In Awe As FBI Hauls Off 1 Prominent Figure After Another Allegedly Connected To N.J. Corruption Probe

What the TV news is NOT reporting is:

1. The FBI was advised of this organ traffciking ring SEVEN YEARS AGO by a totally credible source (a university professor) and it's MUCH larger than a single potential transaction.

2. Law enforcement in Brazil and South Africa acted immediately on the information and went after the criminals.

3. This was not just organ dealing. It was organ stealing. Impoverished people were flown in and told if they didn't go through with the deal, they'd be shot. Some had no idea the details of what they'd agreed to.

Organs were "bought" for $10,000 and re-sold for $150,000 and more. It took the FBI SEVEN YEARS to get themselves in gear and get an indictment.

Many thanks to WtFU for providing the items, links and commentaries above.

Also see
MSM Miracles: One-Day Israeli Wonders (and related links within)

Now the MSM one-day, can't ignore it but never follow up on, piece of cover-up s***.

"3 NJ mayors, lawmakers arrested in corruption case" by David Porter, Associated Press Writer | July 23, 2009

NEWARK, N.J. --An investigation into the sale of black-market kidneys and fake Gucci handbags evolved into a sweeping probe of political corruption in New Jersey, ensnaring more than 40 people Thursday, including three mayors, two state lawmakers and several rabbis.

Even for a state with a rich history of graft, the scale of wrongdoing alleged was breathtaking. An FBI official called corruption "a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state."

And this nation. Is the FBI finally fighting back?

Federal prosecutors said the investigation initially focused on a money laundering network that operated between Brooklyn, N.Y.; Deal, N.J.; and Israel. The network is alleged to have laundered tens of millions of dollars through Jewish charities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey.

Prosecutors then used an informant in that investigation to help them go after corrupt politicians. The informant -- a real estate developer charged with bank fraud three years ago -- posed as a crooked businessman and paid a string of public officials tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to get approvals for buildings and other projects in New Jersey, authorities said.

Among the 44 people arrested were the mayors of Hoboken, Ridgefield and Secaucus, Jersey City's deputy mayor, and two state assemblymen. A member of the governor's cabinet resigned after agents searched his home, though he was not arrested. All but one of the officeholders are Democrats.

Thank the Lord I'm a Republican!

Also, five rabbis from New York and New Jersey -- two of whom lead congregations in Deal -- were accused of laundering millions of dollars, some of it from the sale of counterfeit goods and bankruptcy fraud, authorities said.

In rounding up the defendants, FBI and IRS agents raided a synagogue Thursday morning in Deal, a wealthy oceanfront city of Mediterranean-style mansions, with a large population of Syrian Jews.

Glad to see they are doing that instead of working the mosque!

Those arrested included Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn, who was charged with conspiring to arrange the sale of an Israeli citizen's kidney for $160,000 for a transplant for the informant's fictitious uncle....

The politicians arrested were not accused of any involvement in the money laundering or the trafficking in human organs and counterfeit handbags.... The informant, whose name was not released, was the hinge between the two investigations. He gave prosecutors information about the money laundering operation, and later, at the direction of the FBI, drew on his background to go after politicians.

Now, THESE are the GOOD TYPES of INFORMANTS!!!

Way better than the instigating agitators that frame Muslim patsies!

He found a particularly receptive ally in Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, according to prosecutors. The 32-year-old Cammarano, who won a runoff election last month, was accused of accepting money from the developer at a Hoboken diner....

Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini was charged with conspiracy to commit extortion by taking $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions. State Assemblymen Daniel Van Pelt and L. Harvey Smith were also accused of taking payoffs.

Mike Winnick was praying inside the Deal Synagogue when it was raided. He said four FBI agents escorted a rabbi into his office and blocked the doorway. "Everyone was looking at each other, like, 'What's going on here?'" Winnick said.

Busloads carrying those arrested were brought to the FBI's Newark office....

--more--"

Globe's "update":

"Authorities arrest 44 in N.J. corruption case; 2 lawmakers, 3 mayors, and rabbis accused" by David M. Halbfinger, New York Times | July 24, 2009

A two-year corruption and international money-laundering investigation stretching from the New Jersey shore to Brooklyn to Israel and Switzerland culminated in charges against 44 people yesterday, including three New Jersey mayors, two state assemblymen, and five rabbis, authorities said.

The case began with bank fraud charges against a member of an insular Syrian Jewish enclave centered in a seaside town. But when that man became a federal informant and posed as a crooked real estate developer offering cash bribes to obtain government approvals, it mushroomed into a political scandal that could rival any of the most explosive and sleazy episodes in New Jersey’s recent past.

It was replete with tales of the illegal sales of human organs; of furtive negotiations in diners and parking lots; of nervous jokes about “patting down’’ a man who turned out to indeed be an informant; and, again and again, of the passing of cash - once in a box of Apple Jacks cereal stuffed with $97,000.

“For these defendants, corruption was a way of life,’’ Ralph J. Marra Jr., the acting US attorney in New Jersey, said at a news conference.

Related: Olmert the Thief

The authorities laid out two separate schemes, one involving money laundering that led to rabbis and members of the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn and in the Jersey Shore town of Deal, where many of them have summer homes....

Linking the two schemes was the federal informant who was not named in court papers but who people involved with the investigation identified as Solomon Dwek, a failed real estate developer and philanthropist who was arrested in May 2006 on charges of passing a bad $25 million check at a bank in Monmouth County, N.J.

Early on, Dwek led investigators to an extensive network of money launderers including rabbis in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, where the Syrian Jewish community is based, and in Deal and Elberon, shore towns where many in the community spend their summers.

Dwek, a member of the Syrian Jewish community whose parents founded the Deal Yeshiva, never concealed that he was facing bank fraud charges, instead telling targets, which included three rabbis in Brooklyn and two in New Jersey, that he was bankrupt and trying to conceal his assets, according to people involved in the case. The targets, in turn, accepted bank checks Dwek made out to charities that they oversaw, deducted a fee, and returned the rest to him in cash.

Much of the cash came from Israel....

As a result of the money-laundering scheme, the rabbis arrested included Saul Kassin, 87, the chief rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn and New Jersey; Mordchai Fish and Lavel Schwartz, both rabbis in Brooklyn; and Eliahu Ben Haim and Edmund Nahum, who lead congregations in Deal.

Another man in Brooklyn, Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum, was accused of enticing vulnerable people to give up a kidney for $10,000 and then selling the organ for $160,000.

--more--"

Updates and other blogs worth reading on this nefarious story:

The Racketeering Rabbis

Welcome to Israel, the land of White Slavers, Body Snatchers and Drug Mules

Busted: The Orthodox Criminal Network

"11 Suspicious Letters With White Powder Sent to N.J. Government Offices The FBI is investigating 11 suspicious letters containing a white powder that were sent to various New Jersey government offices this month

"Makes it a little awkward to close the investigation, doesn't it?" -- Wake the Flock Up

Globe never reported that, either.

Update:

Police detain Israelis, Americans linked to massive U.S. tax fraud The suspects are alleged to have masterminded a scheme whereby they fraudulently obtained tax refunds totaling tens of millions of dollars which were then transferred to various bank accounts in Israel.

But they can see the Balkans all right?


"Balkan organ selling alleged; EU investigates Albania geurrillas" by Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press | August 4, 2009

BELGRADE - Europe’s top human rights watchdog launched an investigation yesterday into Serbian allegations that ethnic Albanian guerrillas kidnapped Serb civilians during Kosovo’s war, then removed their organs and sold the body parts on the black market.

Leading the investigation is Dick Marty, a Swiss senator representing the Council of Europe....

After his fact-finding visits, Marty will issue a report on “inhuman treatment of people and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo,’’ the statement said.

Serbian officials say up to 500 Kosovo Serbs vanished without a trace during the 1998-99 war. They contend at least some of them might have had organs removed. The Serb war crimes investigators say they have concrete proof that at least 10 people have been the victims of an international organ trafficking operation, but that many more could have been operated on in makeshift hospitals in neighboring Albania before being dumped in mass graves....

Related: The Kosovo Cover-Up

Ethnic Albanian officials have denied the allegations. They said they are victims of Serbian propaganda against Kosovo’s independence, declared last year with Western backing.

Reminder: The Bosnia and Kosovo Muslims got help from Bill Clinton's "Al-CIA-Duh." Jut though you should keep that in mind.

The allegations were first made public in a memoir last year by Carla Del Ponte, the former chief UN war crimes prosecutor. In “Madame Prosecutor,’’ an account of her tenure as head of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, Del Ponte said her office was tipped to possible organ trafficking.

Kosovo’s government spokesman Memli Krasniqi said yesterday the country’s authorities welcome “any investigation into war crimes committed in Kosovo,’’ but added that the real perpetrators should be sought in Serbia.

Everyone knows Serbia is the one that committed crimes against humanity and genocide in Kosovo,’’ Krasniqi said. “Allegations of organ trafficking are part of Del Ponte’s imagination, inspired by Serbia’s criminals.’’

Why? Because my AGENDA-PUSHING GLOBALIST MSM said so?

The ethnic Albanian guerrillas fought Serbian troops loyal to late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in a conflict over ownership of Kosovo that claimed at least 10,000 lives. The bloodshed ended after NATO pummeled Serbia with air strikes and sent in peacekeepers in June 1999....

Yeah, DEPLETED URANIUM-LADEN AIR STRIKES!!!!

--more--"

Btw, that was ANOTHER of BILL CLINTON'S WAR CRIMES!!!!

Yeah, I know, he is some sort of hero today.

Hey, THAT'S AmeriKa!