FBI Operation Bid Rig: Is there any connection between the political corruption in NJ and the rabbis selling kidneys and doing money laundering in NY?
I can't see any connection between these unrelated cases except maybe it's the same FBI office.
Is this a way to get kidney sales for ten years and money laundering by rabbis to blow over quickly since all attention in the media will be on the corrupt politicians?
Here's all the info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bid_Rig
All complaints: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nj/press/2009releases.html
P.S. It's in world news since there is an international angle involving Israel.
Posted Jul 24, 2009, 5:10 PM UTC · edited
07
Kidney smuggler needs a place to launder money. Money gets laundered through some Jewish charities in NY. Obviously Jewish charities are run by rabbis. FBI is investigating this and get wind of ties to NJ officials. Pose as construction companies willing to bribe public officials for contracts. Reel in more fish.
But what is the tie to the NJ politicians? I have looked at the documents and not found any.
[RICO](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act) Baby !
How does that apply here? I can imagine it applies to the corrupt politicians but what about the money laundering and organ trafficking?
Large scale public corruption, by its very nature, grows into a tangled web. You can not maintain an institutional level of corruption without a parallel infrastructure and economy to supply, consume, and clean your dirty money.
The kidney smugglers were based in NJ, and once the corrupt establishment catches wind of illicit profit being made in their territory there is likely to be inbreeding if not out-and-out payoffs.
The thing I'm after is that you don't need to bribe any politicians for the organ trafficking, right? You do it and keep quiet about it. Rabbi Isaac Rosenbaum who said he had sold organs for ten years is in Brooklyn, New York and not New Jersey, although that's not far away.
As for the illicit profits, according to the complaint, checks were written to his synagogue as a "donation" so people wouldn't notice that or he got it in cash.
I still don't see the connection between these cases. It could be as somebody else here said that it was the same confidential informant that the FBI used, but I've not seen anything about that, and he had just heard that it seems.