Mayors, legislators, clergy nabbed in New Jersey corruption probe
More than 40 people, including three mayors, other elected and appointed officials and Jewish clergy were arrested in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York on Thursday in an investigation into public corruption, international money laundering and human organ marketing, authorities said.There were so many arrests that handcuffed suspects were brought to court for processing in a bus. Variously dressed, several wore traditional orthodox clothes. "Corruption was a way of life," Ralph J. Marra Jr., the acting United States attorney in Newark, New Jersey, across the Hudson River and a few miles west of New York City, told reporters. "They existed in an ethics-free zone." The investigation was continuing and evidence gathered would be followed "to wherever the crime and corruption is occurring," Marra said. New Jersey mayors Peter Cammarano of Hoboken, Dennis Elwell of Secaucus, Mayor Anthony Suarez of Ridgefield and Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini of Jersey City and assemblymen L. Harvey Smith and Daniel Van Pelt were among the officials named in the 10-year probe. Rabbis in Brooklyn, New York, in Deal and Elberon, and other communities along the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County, New Jersey, were identified as from the enclaves of Syrian Jews and from the Hassidic sect. Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum of Brooklyn, New York, was named in a plot where a kidney from a donor paid 10,000 U.S. dollars was sold for 160,000 dollars, Mara said. "Usually donors are vulnerable people who need the money," said Weysan Dun, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent in charge of the Newark office. "This scheme preys on donors." The grand rabbi of the Syrian Jewish community in the United States, Saul Kassin, was arrested for his part in a money-laundering scheme, said Dun, adding the plot stretched to Switzerland and Israel. Edward Kahrer, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's white collar crime team in the Newark division, who supervised the case "for just about 10 years," said "New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst if not the worst in the nation. Corruption is not only pervasive but has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture. The impact that corruption has had on New Jersey has been profound." He said the arrests highlight three separate criminal schemes which share themes of "deceit, abuse of power and betrayal of trust" and it "touches all levels of state government." The investigation was started under U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie who preceded Marra and who now is running against Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat, in the New Jersey gubernatorial race. Most of the officials arrested were Democrats, but Marra said there were some Republicans. "This case is not about politics. It is certainly not about religion. It is about crime, corruption, it is about arrogance. Itis about a shocking betrayal of public confidence," Dun said. "It is about criminals who used politics and religion to cloak their criminal activities and to enrich themselves while betraying those who trusted them." He said the case uncovered "a web of corruption that spanned the state similar to the way a spider's web might cover your face if you accidentally walk into it." He said all of the defendants may not have known other defendants, but "they were connected through their illicit activities with the cooperating witness." Mara said the case evolved with the help of a witness, identified as a real estate developer, who was introduced to the defendants. "Basically he was marketing himself as interested in developing," Dun said, explaining the witness would need permits and loans for his project. "He was a middleman hooking up, so to speak, with people willing to help him." Mara said the cooperating witness met targets of the investigation "in parking lots, at restaurants, luncheonettes, diners, offices basement boiler rooms and bathrooms and the politicians willingly put themselves up for sale." Dun explained evidence was gathered with the use of both video and audio recordings. "We are very confident with the evidence developed," he said. "If you commit a crime long enough and persist in committing crimes you will be caught," he warned. "Sooner or later if you consistently engage in criminal activity the crosshairs of justice will be upon you." Dun told New Jersey citizens that ending corruption was their responsibility. "Corruption in this state will not end due to law enforcement's efforts," Dun said. "It will only end when the citizens of the state and the many honest public officials demand that it end and stop tolerating it. It's time for the citizens of New jersey to ask 'What do we need to do wipe this spider web of corruption off of the face of our state?'"