Attorney: FBI Informant Was ‘Worst-Kept Secret in New Jersey’

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corruption-bustIn the years after the FBI’s cooperating witness (CW) was arrested in an alleged bank fraud scam, those watching his case said the real estate investor seemed unusually relaxed for a man facing up to 30 years in prison. When he appeared in court in connection with the case, the soft-spoken CW was chatty. He freely revealed details of his alleged crime to opposing attorneys as if he had no plans of mounting — or needing — a defense.

Over the last two years, as the judge repeatedly granted federal prosecutors’ requests to delay his trial, the CW seemed unfazed. Many following the case said it was obvious the businessman had made a deal to become a federal snitch in exchange for a lighter sentence.

 “His wearing a wire was the worst kept secret in New Jersey,” said Dennis Kearney, an attorney representing PNC Bank in the CW’s bank fraud case. “Everyone’s No. 1 conclusion has been for years the guy’s been cooperating.”

 Whether it was obvious or not, the CW was able to spend the last two years getting close to some of the area’s most prominent religious leaders and political figures while secretly wearing a wire for the FBI.

In the days since the arrests, new details have emerged about the CW at the center of the investigation.

 “They thought they were dealing with a guy in good faith,” said Leonard Needle, an attorney in Fair Haven.

“He had street cred within the community, which gave him introductions to people in the community,” Kearney said.

{NJ.com/Star Ledger/Matzav.com Newscenter}


13 COMMENTS

  1. This fellow entrapped people who unfourtunately wanted to help “CW” and do him a favor. They should have not gone this far to help him,

  2. Normal – This person wasn’t asking for chesed. He was asking for illegal building permits, money-laundering and illegally traded kidneys. According to reports, the people he asked for “favors” were giving them to other people too.

    Money-laundering isn’t a chesed – it’s a crime. This is a malchus shel chesed, not nineteenth century Poland.

  3. Why are we calling their actions money laundering.their activity is banking without a license.cw tried to entrap them in to a laundering charge by telling them he received the money illegally .they are not guilty of laundering a good lawyer will get them off this charge .the only crook is the cw and the decievers are the fbi

  4. Consider the following hypothetical situation: The United States Attorney General and FBI have heard allegations of Money Laundering by non-profit religious entities. The United States Attorney General and FBI, strongly encouraged by local, state and federal officials, concentrate on the Orthodox Jewish non-profit religious entities and decide to heavily investigate and vigorously prosecute Orthodox Jewish money laundering participants. Pursuing this course of Orthodox Jewish profiling, the FBI finds a member of the Orthodox Jewish community who was arrested on bank fraud charges (i.e. a Cooperating Witness), and with the threat of long term imprisonment, this Cooperating Witness agrees to work with the FBI to uncover money laundering and bribery schemes. With the help of this Cooperating Witness, the FBI charges a handful of Orthodox Jews in a bribery and money-laundering scheme, involving a few Orthodox Jewish non-profit religious entities. The Federal Prosecutor now begins an indictment against these Orthodox Jews, charging them with money laundering offenses, and pursues the prosecution vigorously, hoping to make an example of Orthodox Jews and Orthodox Jewish non-profit religious entities.

    Using “Prosecutorial discretion and selective prosecution: enforcing protection after United States v. Armstrong (Journal article by Anne Bowen Poulin; American Criminal Law Review, Vol. 34, 1997)” as the start of a legal base, it may be possible to prove that the United States Attorney General and FBI have appeared to wield power in a ethnically discriminatory manner.

    Other references that may support the above hypothetical situation are:

    ‘FBI sting was a case of anti-Semitism’ http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1248277897130&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

    And

    ‘Rabbi Yosef’s Son Resisted Dwek’s Temptation’ http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/168564

    An Orthodox Jewish organization like “The Western Center for Law & Policy” or the “Pacific Justice Institute” or “The Alliance Defense Fund” or “The Thomas More Law Center”, dedicated to the legal defense of Orthodox Jewry, would greatly help at this time going forward.

  5. I can’t quote sources so this isn’t 100% certain – but I believe the Rabbis don’t extend the prohibition on “moser” to criminals. To be a moser a Yid has to hand over an innocent person to the Gentile government, or the penalty the guilty person would have to pay would be much more severe than what Beis Din would impose, or there is a risk of the death penalty.

    Since there is no physical danger here (only a jail term – with kosher food, no doubt) that is not a factor. Dina d’malchusa dina, particularly in a malchus shel chesed like the US. If the sources I read were correct, the money-launderers were laundering money already, and the FBI was just using their informant to get legal proof.

    Observe that they didn’t just lock them up the way a pre-War Eastern European government would have, but are going through a legal process that requires proof of guilt.

    If anyone is a moser (assuming he’s found gulty) it’s the “frum” guy dealing in human kidneys. That sort of rishus puts all of us in danger.

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