Several Arrested in a New York Money Laundering Scheme
The United States Department of Justice recently brought charges against rabbis in Brooklyn, NY and New Jersey. This followed and investigation into the bribery and corruption of several New Jersey politicians. The investigation led to the money laundering crimes that were allegedly being committed by these rabbis, who were arrested on Thursday. This FBI investigation, titled Operation Bid Rig, has been on-going for the last ten years. The focus has been on the corruption and the bribery, but with the assistance of a witness they uncovered an international network of money laundering, which broadened their investigation. The witness, Solomon Dwek, is the son of one of the accused rabbi’s. He was also arrested for fraud in 2006. Upon his arrest over eighty banks, companies, and individuals claimed that they were owed more than three hundred million dollars.
The case of the rabbis involves a network wherein the money was laundered through charities that were under the control of the rabbis. The rabbis were given commissions on the transactions, which ranged in number from thousands to those of hundreds of thousands, and the transactions were carried out multiple times in any given week. The sum of the money laundered is believed to be in the millions. This was an operation that began in New Jersey and New York, but involved those in Israel as well. One Israeli was arrested in the sting as well, Levi Deutsch. Duetsch was the one who traveled back and forth between Israel and New York. He was involved in the diamond industry, which became one of the sources they were using to launder the money. This operation has been associated strongly with the international trade of diamonds, a fact that FBI investigators have been aware of for a long time. The rabbis recently arrested in New York are just latest to have been connected to this international scheme. Two New York rabbis were arrested in 1984, and a Los Angeles rabbi was arrested in 1994.
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- The Bribery Bill of the United Kingdom
- The New York Experience
- Political Corruption in Afghanistan Elections
- The Opera of New York City
