Five rabbis were among the 44 persons arrested last week in Brooklyn and New Jersey. They allegedly acted like "crime bosses" in a massive money-laundering and illegal organ trading scandal, according to a New Jersey prosecutor. Several current and former mayors and New Jersey state assemblymen were also arrested in the operation.
The rabbis are suspected of organizing a money-laundering network that allegedly worked through charities in New Jersey, New York and Israel. The money reportedly came from a variety of sources, from a fraudulent bankruptcy claim to profits from selling fake designer handbags. The rabbis are Saul Kassin, 87, chief rabbi of Sharee Zion Synagogue in Brooklyn; Eliahu Ben Haim, 58, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, New Jersey; Edmond Nahum, 56, of Deal Synagogue; Mordchai Fish, 56, of Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn; and New York resident Rabbi Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 58. The latter allegedly tried to orchestrate the sale of human kidneys bought for $10,000 from poor donors in places like India and Eastern Europe on the black market for up to US$ 180,000.
"The fact that we arrested a number of rabbis does not make this a religiously motivated investigation," Weysan Dun, special agent in charge of FBI’s office in Newark, said at a news conference. "It is not a politically motivated investigation. It is about crime, corruption, arrogance and a shocking betrayal of public trust." District Attorney Ralph Marra also stressed that the suspects' religion was irrelevant, and that all the suspects knew the money they were laundering came from illegal sources. "These rings, led by clergymen, cloaked their extensive criminal activities behind a facade of rectitude," he pointed out.
