Solomon Dwek was the son of a Rabbi. He started a career as a Jersey real estate mogul, buying land and selling it to developers, while still in his teens. From there he became a money guy, and con-artist, fleecing hundreds of people out of millions of dollars.
He was finally caught by bouncing a $25 million check; he deposited the check into a night drop and tried to withdraw $23 million of it soon afterwards. He was caught, and in the courtroom that day in 2006 at his pre-trial arraignment, loud and angry victims overflowed into the hallways. He had disparaged his family's good name, and destroyed countless family's retirement plans.
Instead of prison, Dwek decided to help the FBI, and go undercover in an unprecedented sting operation. What he told the FBI he could give them was so outlandish that they were initially in disbelief, but he convinced them, and if any of my readers have seen the news coming out of Jersey and Brooklyn lately, he wasn't lying.
Dwek help lead the feds to arresting--all on the same day mind you--44 folks in jersey and Brooklyn, but these weren't your average thugs, gangsters, mafioso, shady dealers and the like. They nabbed three mayors of New Jersey cities, state senators and assembly-persons from New Jersey and New York, Rabbis from Jersey and Brooklyn, and may other bribe-taking folks in the building department of New Jersey.
The sting netted two basic categories of criminals. One was the bribe-taking corruption you find in almost any municipality. Inspectors being paid to clam up about mistakes; city council members being paid to push through permits; mayors being paid for green-lighting certain projects over others...the mayor of Hoboken was one of the mayors arrested. Hoboken lies directly across the Hudson from Greenwich Village, is a picturesque little burg, about 1 square mile in area, and had just elected the mayor two months ago in early June. Two months...and he's arrested for corruption. One quote taken from a smitten resident called this mayor "so young and handsome" at least three separate times, and she could hardly believe the allegations were true. Everyone who was arrested in the bribe/corruption can be heard on wiretap recordings bragging about their deals and status.
Wiretap recordings also nabbed the other category of criminal netted in the sting. This one was centered around Brooklyn, and run by one or two Rabbis. This is the organ-trafficking category, the made-for-pulp-fiction type stuff.
The way it seemed to work is that destitute folks from places like Moldavia and Israel would be flown into America with phony visas, have a kidney removed, be paid a few thousand dollars and be sent home, or be sent to work as cheap labor here. The organs would be sold on the black market for $160k and up, sold to waiting and willing customers.
When they processed the 44 arrested through the federal court in New Jersey, they were doing it in groups to speed the process up and be able to finish it that day.
Solomon Dwek, con-man, FBI snitch, blows the lid off of a sordid level corruption barely seen this side of Italian politics...
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