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Corruption probe nets 3 mayors in New Jersey
Source: Agencies |
July 25, 2009, Saturday
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AN investigation into the sale of black-market kidneys and fake Gucci handbags evolved into a sweeping probe of political corruption in New Jersey, United States, ensnaring more than 40 people on Thursday, including three mayors, two state lawmakers and several rabbis.
Even for a state with a rich history of graft, the scale of alleged wrongdoing was breathtaking. An FBI official called corruption "a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state."
Federal prosecutors said the investigation initially focused on a money laundering network that operated between Brooklyn, New York; Deal, New Jersey; 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.
Also, five rabbis from New York and New Jersey 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, authorities raided a synagogue on Thursday morning in Deal, a wealthy oceanfront city with a large population of Syrian Jews.
Those arrested included Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn, who was charged with conspiring to arrange the sale of an Israeli citizen's kidney for US$160,000 for a transplant for the informant's fictitious uncle.
The politicians arrested were not accused of involvement in the money laundering, or trafficking in human organs and counterfeit handbags.
Even for a state with a rich history of graft, the scale of alleged wrongdoing was breathtaking. An FBI official called corruption "a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state."
Federal prosecutors said the investigation initially focused on a money laundering network that operated between Brooklyn, New York; Deal, New Jersey; 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.
Also, five rabbis from New York and New Jersey 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, authorities raided a synagogue on Thursday morning in Deal, a wealthy oceanfront city with a large population of Syrian Jews.
Those arrested included Levy Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn, who was charged with conspiring to arrange the sale of an Israeli citizen's kidney for US$160,000 for a transplant for the informant's fictitious uncle.
The politicians arrested were not accused of involvement in the money laundering, or trafficking in human organs and counterfeit handbags.
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