UPDATE 3-Mayors, rabbis arrested in NJ corruption probe

Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:31pm EDT

* Three New Jersey mayors arrested in corruption case

* Several rabbis, local politicians also among 44 arrested

* Case found bribery, money laundering, human kidney sales


By Edith Honan

NEWARK, July 23 (Reuters) - Dozens of New Jersey politicians, officials and prominent rabbis were arrested on Thursday in a sweeping federal probe that uncovered political corruption, human organ sales and money laundering from New York to Israel, officials said.

The 10-year investigation, dubbed "Operation Bid Rig," exposed influence-peddling and bribe-taking among a network of public officials and a separate multimillion dollar money-laundering ring that funneled funds through charities operated by local rabbis, said the U.S. Attorney's office in Newark, New Jersey.

The cast of the 44 arrested featured Hoboken, New Jersey, Mayor Peter Cammarano, who took office three weeks ago in the industrial city visible across the Hudson River from New York.

Others accused were mayors of nearby Secaucus and Ridgefield, state Assemblymen, a deputy mayor, city council members, housing, planning and zoning officials, building inspectors and political candidates.

"New Jersey's corruption problem is one of the worst, if not the worst, in the nation," said Ed Kahrer, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's white collar crime and public corruption program in New Jersey, who has worked on the investigation since it began in July 1999.

"It has become ingrained in New Jersey's political culture," he said, calling corruption "a cancer."

Central to the investigation was an informant who was charged with bank fraud in 2006 and posed undercover as a real estate developer and owner of a tile business who paid off officials to win project approval and public contracts in northern New Jersey, according to documents in the case.

The public officials stand accused of taking bribes for pledging their help getting permits and projects prioritized and approved or steering contracts to the witness.

"CULTURE OF CORRUPTION"

In scenes that could have been lifted from the hit TV series "The Sopranos," about New Jersey organized crime, they met in diners, parking lots, even bathrooms, officials said.

"The politicians willingly put themselves up for sale," said Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra. "The victims are the average citizens and the honest business people in this state. They don't have a chance in this culture of corruption."

Continued at https://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2340189320090723

Room 101 wrote:Your "neck of the woods" wins over mine for local progressiveness, comrade.

On all reports I heard today there was not one mention of the Party (or caption) indicating the affiliation of these upstanding Progs.

Room 101 wrote:Your "neck of the woods" wins over mine for local progressiveness, comrade.

On all reports I heard today there was not one mention of the Party (or caption) indicating the affiliation of these upstanding Progs.

Commissar_Elliott wrote:How would you rate this over the Progs and the Frankenstien monster in Minnesota?

Opiate of the People wrote:

Commissar_Elliott wrote:How would you rate this over the Progs and the Frankenstien monster in Minnesota?

Is Frankenstein an imported idiot or a carpetbagger in the Hillary Clinton mode or was he originally hatched in Minnesota? Probably no matter, he learned his crap craft in NYC and LA, the king and queen of the Democrat-Media complex. That makes him one of "us" (a right-coaster.) I guess the reason he didn't run for senator here was that the supply of useful idiots was already far greater than the demand.