Sentencing for Rabbi Mordchai Fish on money laundering charges put on hold

The long-delayed sentencing of Rabbi Mordchai Fish has again been put on indefinite hold.

U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano in Trenton had set a Feb. 17 sentence date for Fish, with the order that there would be no further delay in the matter, originally scheduled for July. But the judge last week agreed to again put off the matter until completion of a pre-sentence investigation report from the probation department.

Fish was one of 44 people initially charged in the Jersey Sting, which came to light in July 2009 with the arrests of three mayors, two legislators, five rabbis and dozens of public officials and candidates for office. Also arrested was a man charged with brokering the sale of a human kidney.

At the center of it all was failed Monmouth County developer Solomon Dwek, an informant who entered into a cooperation deal with federal prosecutors after he was arrested for trying to pass $50 million in bad checks at a bank drive-thru window.

Last April, Fish pleaded guilty to an information charging him with money laundering conspiracy. The Brooklyn rabbi admitted that he began meeting with Dwek in early 2008 and agreed to a series of transactions that were funneled through several community charities known as "gmachs," which Fish controlled.

After pleading guilty, Fish switched lawyers, hiring top defense attorney Michael Critchley, who represented Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez —one of only two people acquitted in the sweeping criminal case