The New York Post runs an easily-digestible story on yesterday's corruption arrests, including three mayors and five religious leaders, in New Jersey:
All the suspects in both investigations were brought down by the same shady developer, who wore a wire for three years while he bought off politicians, passed supposedly dirty money for laundering and even arranged for a $160,000 kidney sale. * * * At the center of the stings by the FBI and the IRS was Solomon Dwek -- a real-estate developer busted in May 2006 for trying to rip off $50 million from PNC Bank through a check-kiting scheme. * * * Once flipped by the feds, the 36-year-old posed as a crooked businessman looking to launder proceeds from fraudulent bank loans or sales of fake designer handbags to accomplices who would launder the money through charities in the United States and Israel. They moved "at least tens of millions of dollars through charitable, nonprofit entities controlled by rabbis in New York and New Jersey," [acting US Attorney Ralph] Marra said.* * * Dwek, who ran a Deal, NJ, yeshiva that catered to Sephardic Jews, also offered to bribe officials to smooth the way for his real-estate projects. That phase of the ruse ensnared the politicians. * * * The investigation was described by the feds as "dual track," because the political corruption and laundering probes were separate.
