Rumson-Fair Haven Bank & Trust Co. officials claim 440,000 shares tied to Solomon Dwek were improperly voted by one of the swindler’s former business associates — the uncle of his wife — in a proxy contest last week, tilting the results. The Dwek shares are pivotal in the bitter proxy contest.
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When Ron Manzo decided to testify against Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell—whom he had known for 10 years—it was a painful decision.
Manzo's layer, Peter Willis, said it was a decision that carried no small fallout.
"He is now known as the 'Rat of Hudson County,'" Willis said.
Manzo today avoided prison as a result of his cooperation.
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She was once known as Hope Diamond, the Gem of the Exotics.
She became the target of a federal corruption investigation as Leona Beldini, the deputy mayor of Jersey City.
Now she is federal prisoner number 30118-050.
Convicted in the biggest undercover sting operation in New Jersey history, one-time burlesque dancer, real estate agent and politician Leona Beldini reported to federal prison today.
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Dennis Elwell, the former mayor of Secaucus who was convicted of bribery after accepting an envelope stuffed with $10,000 in cash, was sentenced today to 30 months in prison.
Elwell took the money from federal informant Solomon Dwek, who was posing as a corrupt developer willing to pay for zoning approvals on dubious projects.
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Leona Beldini, the former Jersey City deputy mayor who was the first to be convicted in the Jersey Sting, is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Newark today to argue that she should get a new trial, just days before she is scheduled to report to prison to begin serving her sentence for corruption.

The sentencing of Levy Itzhak Rosenbaum, who pleaded guilty in October to arranging black market kidney transplants, has been put off until May.
Rosenbaum had been due in court on April 18, but a federal judge this week rescheduled the sentencing hearing until May 31. No reason was given, but sentencing dates are often deferred, typically because of issues related to the pre-sentence reports to the judge.
Rosenbaum, 60, an Israeli citizen living in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty to helping FBI informant Solomon Dwek procure a kidney as part of an elaborate federal sting, while at the same time admitting that he arranged transplants for three other New Jersey patients with failing kidneys.
He had been caught on surveillance recordings bragging that he could secure a kidney donor for the right price. He is the first person convicted in the U.S. of organ trafficking.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Rosenbaum faces up to five years in prison on each count, and $250,000 in fines. He also faces deportation and agreed to forfeit the $420,000 he received to broker the four transplant.

Lou Manzo, a former state lawmaker, is a free man after a bruising legal battle to clear his name, an effort that cost him his home, his job and $150,000 in legal fees — expenses he recently filed a motion to have the government reimburse him for.
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Lawyers for Lori Serrano, the Jersey City City Council candidate arrested in the 2009 corruption sweep, argue in a new court filing that Serrano’s mail-fraud indictment should be dismissed, saying the U.S. Attorney’s Office discriminated against her because she is a Democrat.
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Less than two weeks before she was to enter federal prison, the attorney for corrupt former Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini said today that she has been hospitalized due to several strokes and other health issues.
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Convicted former Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini filed motions late last week claiming she did not get a fair trial and she's asking a federal judge to grant her a new trial.
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A study of all 50 states' vulnerability to corruption has found New Jersey top in the nation at stemming the tide of political corruption.
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Following the dismissal of all charges against him, former state Assemblyman Louis Manzo has filed a motion seeking to have $150,000 in attorney fees reimbursed.
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Now sitting in a federal correctional center in Philadelphia awaiting sentencing, former FBI informant Solomon Dwek has switched lawyers.
Dwek — who wore a wire for three years in a money-laundering and political corruption case that led to The Jersey Sting — last week replaced his longtime attorney, Michael Himmel, a former federal prosecutor, with Charles Uliano, a Monmouth County defense lawyer.
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After a federal judge rejected a last-minute request to delay his prison sentence, Rabbi Eliahu Ben Haim has reported to the federal prison at Otisville, N.Y., to begin his five year sentence for money laundering.
The rabbi had admitted he laundered $1.5 million from disgraced developer Solomon Dwek on 35 occasions from October 2006 to July 2009, following his arrest with more than 44 other suspects in the biggest federal sting operation in New Jersey history.
U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano sentenced Ben Haim in January to five years for his role in an elaborate international underground banking system, keeping a large cut of the ill-gotten gains.
"You were operating as a community leader, a religious leader and a family man," said the judge. "At the same time you were holding yourself out in a false light."
In February, Ben Haim's son, Shaya Ben Haim, who lives in Jerusalem, wrote to Pisano, asking that his father be allowed to stay out of prison until after Passover in April, when he had been planning to return for a visit to the United States with his family.
"I know that you said at his sentencing that there will be many holidays in the next 60 months where his chair will be empty," Shaya Ben Haim wrote. "We accept this, but hoped that his absence would begin after this Passover for the sake of my children and my sister.
Pisano denied the request without comment.
Ben Haim is serving the longest sentence set to date in the Jersey Sting. Dwek has yet to be sentenced.

Former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano is back home.
The disgraced one-time rising star of Hudson County politics, who pleaded guilty in New Jersey's largest corruption sting, has been released from a halfway house and will complete the remainder of his two-year prison sentence on home confinement.
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Solomon Dwek, who faces nine to 11 years in federal prison for the $50 million bank fraud that led to his cooperation deal with the government, will have to wait a little while longer to learn his fate.
Dwek’s sentencing was put on hold again on Friday, just days before the infamous informant behind the biggest federal sting operation in New Jersey history was due to appear in court.
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Vincent Tabbachino, the former Guttenberg councilman convicted of bribery and money laundering in The Jersey Sting, was sentenced yesterday in federal court to 41 months in prison.
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Lou Manzo, the former Jersey City assemblyman, said he died on July 23, 2009.
That's the day he was arrested along with 45 others in the massive corruption sweep that became known as The Jersey Sting.
Yesterday, a federal judge dismissed all charges against him.
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A federal judge in Newark has said he needs more time to decide if the remaining corruption charges against former assemblyman and unsuccessful Jersey City mayoral candidate Louis Manzo will stand or be dismissed.
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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

John Guarini, 62, a former property improvement field representative, faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty in October.
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Calling it a bogus case, attorneys for former Jersey City assemblyman and mayoral candidate Lou Manzo argued yesterday that corruption charges against the Hudson County Democrat were all part of a conspiracy to get Republican Gov. Chris Christie elected.
One of 46 charged in the biggest federal undercover sting operation in New Jersey history, Manzo is accused of accepting more than $20,000 from government informant Solomon Dwek, who played to part of a corrupt developer seeking favors.
Manzo is due to go to trial in February.
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James King, the former Jersey City Jersey City Parking Authority executive director who admitted taking $5,000 from Solomon Dwek during his unsuccessful run for City Council in 2009, was given probation yesterday at his sentencing on corruption charges.
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Federal corruption charges filed against former Jersey City Health Officer Joseph Castagna in 2009 have been dropped, official said.
Castagna was one of 46 people arrested in the massing Bid Rig III probe. He was suspended by the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services after his arrest
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In the beginning, I did not want visitors and the counselor over there, who was a decent human being, he said, ‘Catrillo, I have about 50 applications for visits, what’s going on here?’ And he says, ‘What do you want me to do with these?’ And I said,’ I don’t know.’ He says, ‘You wanna pick 10 out of here?’

I said, ‘I really don’t want visitors.’ Then he sat me down and he explained to me so well…’When your mother sees you face-to-face and she knows you are doing well, it’s going to mean something to her.’

An interview with Guy Catrillo in the Jersey City Independent
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In worship services, Rabbi Eliahu Ben Haim used to lecture on the need for his congregants to be upstanding and moral. At the same time, he was secretly laundering at least $1.5 million through various charities in an elaborate international underground banking system and keeping a large cut of the ill-gotten gains.

One of the last of the high-profile suspects in a massive federal sting operation, Ben Haim was sentenced today to five years in prison as the federal government nears the conclusion of its extensive investigation into money laundering and public corruption in New Jersey.
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Rabbi Eliahu Ben Haim, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to laundering tens of thousands of dollars for federal informant Solomon Dwek as part of a massive federal sting operation, is to be sentenced in federal court in Trenton on Wednesday.
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Three people are suing former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, claiming he failed to pay them $70,000 for loans and services they provided his 2009 election campaign.
Cammarano pleaded guilty to accepting $25,000 in bribes, in the wake of the 2009 massive corruption sting that led to his arrest just weeks after taking office.
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The sentencing of Rabbi Eliahu Ben Haim, who pleaded guilty more than a year ago to using religious charities to launder up to $1.5 million for government informant Solomon Dwek, has again been deferred by a federal judge.
Ben Haim, who remains free on $1.5 million bail, was to be sentenced next week. But U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano yesterday rescheduled the already delayed sentencing hearing until January 4, 2012.
Ben Haim was arrested in July 2009, along with scores of others, including three mayors, two assemblymen and one man accused of conspiring to sell a human kidney. They were all ensnared by Dwek, who secretly began working for the FBI after being charged in 2006 with a $50 million bank fraud.

Prison could kill ailing, 76-year-old former Jersey City deputy mayor Leona Beldini, her attorney argued, in a final bid to allow her to remain free nearly two years after she was found guilty in February 2010 of accepting bribes from federal informant Solomon Dwek.
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The sentencing of former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, scheduled for this week, has been postponed until next year.
Elwell was convicted in July of accepting $10,000 from informant Solomon Dwek, who was posing as a crooked developer as part of a massive public federal corruption and money laundering sting that shook Hudson County and New Jersey in the summer of 2009.
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Levy Itzhak Rosenbaum — who told neighbors in Brooklyn he dabbled in construction and real estate — had bragged on surveillance recordings that he could secure a kidney donor for the right price.
Today, the 60-year-old Israeli pleaded guilty in federal court to helping an FBI informant procure a kidney as part of an elaborate federal sting, while admitting that he arranged transplants for three other New Jersey patients with failing kidneys.
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Attorneys for former Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, sentenced to three years for her role in The Jersey Sting, are seeking to have her prison sentence delayed because the federal prison system is “ill-equipped” to handle her myriad of health problems.
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Entrapment or targets of opportunity?
Michael Critchley Sr. and Joseph Hayden, who represented high profile defendants in The Jersey Sting, along with Rutgers Law School Dean John Farmer Jr., and former acting U.S. Attorney Ralph Marra —who directed the criminal investigation that led to charges against 46 people — will talk with authors Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin about political corruption and cooperating witnesses, against the background of the biggest federal sting in New Jersey history.
The program on October 26 at Rutgers School of Law/Newark brings together for the first time some of the top players of the still ongoing case.
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By Ted Sherman
Star-Ledger Staff
He first met Solomon Dwek in the empty boiler room of a Jersey City apartment building.
There, John Guarini - a building inspector for the city - took a white, FedEx envelope stuffed with $20,000 in cash.
"Take care of me, I'll take care of you," said Dwek, a federal informant posing as a corrupt developer and secretly recording the conversation for the FBI.
"Absolutely," replied Guarini, according to transcripts of the meeting.
Yesterday, Guarini, 62, of Bayonne, admitted taking the money to help green-light a dubious condo development deal - along with $10,000 more intended as a payoff for another public official - and failing to report any of it on his federal tax return.
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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who as U.S. Attorney launched The Jersey Sting, sounds like a candidate, but last night would not throw his hat into the crowded Republican ring to run for president.
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“Louis Manzo’s purported influence was non-existent at the time of the alleged bribery, and any future influence was nebulous, unrealistic and not within the parameters of the statute, nor is there a scintilla of ‘public servant’ present,” attorneys for the former state assemblyman and mayoral candidate argue, as they seek to have the bribery case against him thrown out.
He and his brother were charged with accepting $27,500 from federal informant Solomon Dwek, in exchange for assistance on a purported real-estate project.
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"Nahum is an idiot," said Solomon Dwek dismissively on the surveillance tape. It was a comment that a federal judge took into consideration Thursday as he sentenced Rabbi Edmond Nahum to just a year of probation for his role in helping Dwek launder money.
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Former Assemblyman Daniel M. Van Pelt, who was convicted last year for accepting $10,000 in cash from FBI informant Solomon Dwek, has filed an appeal before the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Now living in Baltimore with her husband in jail awaiting sentencing, Pearl Dwek—the wife of federal informant Solomon Dwek—has filed for bankruptcy, saying she owes half a million dollars to creditors.
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Arguing there was insufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict, former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell asked a federal judge Monday to throw out his bribery conviction or grant him a new trial.
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Former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, arrested on corruption charges just 23 days after being sworn in to office, was "keyed out" of the Lewisburg Federal Prison Camp in Pennsylvania on Wednesday to complete the rest of his 24 month sentence in a halfway house in New York.
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Former Jersey City City Council candidate LaVern Webb Washington, whose guilty plea to bribery charges was thrown out by a federal judge, was indicted again yesterday for defrauding her campaign fund in connection to payments she accepted from federal informant Solomon Dwek, federal officials said.
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A day after former deputy Jersey City mayor Leona Beldini lost her appeal, the U.S. Attorney’s Office asked a federal judge to revoke her bail. Beldini, 76, a long-time confidante of Mayor Jerramiah Healy, was free pending an appeal of her corruption conviction and has already been sentenced to three years in prison.
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Former Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, one of the first to go to trial in the massive federal corruption sting that came to light in July 2009, lost her appeal today with a decision by the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirming her bribery conviction — making it likely that the 76-year-old one-time burlesque star will soon begin serving her three-year prison sentence.
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Former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell’s bribery conviction should not be overturned because there is “ample evidence” supporting the jury’s verdict, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman argued in court papers filed late Friday.
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In a recent interview, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said it's hard to assess the legacy of the largest federal sting in New Jersey history.
"The cases were filed both to prosecute corrupt public officials and to send a warning to those who might want to travel a similar road, he said inside his Newark office. "We hope and believe that they are listening," he said.
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Solomon Dwek, the key informant behind The Jersey Sting, has been moved from the Essex County Correctional Facility to a federal detention center, awaiting sentencing on the $50 million bank fraud that led to his cooperation deal with the government.

Dwek was jailed in June after lying to the FBI about a rental car that had been reported stolen in Baltimore where his wife and children now live. The charges against him were ultimately dropped in July, but his bail was revoked after a federal judge ruled that he had violated his cooperation agreement.

He was moved recently from the Essex County jail to the Philadelphia Detention Center, pending sentencing, which was moved up and is now scheduled for this fall.

Pointing to an outspoken juror who they say clearly "misunderstood or misapplied the law," the lawyers for former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell filed papers in federal court Friday seeking to overturn the mayor’s recent bribery conviction.
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Defamation suit by Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider against a political rival over attempts to link him to Solomon Dwek is tossed by judge.
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This past spring, Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin, who reported the initial story in the Newark Star-Ledger, released "The Jersey Sting," a book account of the bust and the corruption it aimed to thwart. The authors spoke with the Journal's Lisa Fleisher, who was also a reporter at the Star-Ledger when Messrs. Sherman and Margolin covered the corruption story, about the scandal's lasting effects.
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The historic bust rocked the halls of power from North Jersey to Trenton, sparking resignations and bringing disgrace to leaders in Orthodox Jewish enclaves in Deal and Brooklyn.
At the center of the sting was Solomon Dwek.
A status report on the cases of those tried, sentenced, and those awaiting their day in court.
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"Don’t talk. Last time talking," said Rabbi Mordchai Fish.
Those were the instructions to Solomon Dwek, as he tried to set up new targets for the Feds.
Fish warned him repeatedly to keep his mouth shut. "Don’t even say anything. The less they know, it’s gezuntah (healthy)," he told Dwek. "That’s the one favor, not to talk. In and out. No business, no nothing."
New details emerge from the biggest federal corruption sting in New Jersey history.
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After a federal court tossed out the most serious charges to which he had already pleaded guilty, former Hudson County Undersheriff James P. King this morning admitted to a single count of mail fraud in connection with the largest federal corruption sting in New Jersey history.
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There were pancakes for breakfast. Potato salad for the mayor of Jersey City. Chocolate at the Lighthorse Tavern. The Hudson Reporter takes a dining tour of Solomon Dwek's favorite restaurants to bribe a politician.
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It really was a misunderstanding.
Solomon Dwek, the infamous federal informant whose bail was revoked after misleading the FBI about his arrest in Baltimore over a failure to return a rental car, was cleared today of all criminal charges involving the car.
Dwek had insisted it was just a misunderstanding.
But it was never about the car.
It was about lying to the FBI, which will keep the rabbi's son in jail until he is sentenced in a $50 million bank fraud.
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A jury convicted former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell for accepting a $10,000 cash payment from FBI informant Solomon Dwek, who posed as a corrupt developer.
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After losing his freedom for lying to the FBI, informant Solomon Dwek has also lost a $12,500 monthly stipend from the federal bankruptcy trustee trying to sort out the remains of his failed real estate empire.
Dwek was using the money to support his family, now living in Baltimore. His wife recently had a sixth child--a boy they named Rafael.
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It was one too many lies.
There had been the $400 million Ponzi scheme. The $25 million bogus check at a bank drive-through window. And the lies upon lies told to those he ensnared in the biggest federal corruption sting in New Jersey history.
But Tuesday, a federal judge in Newark threw the book at disgraced real estate investor Solomon Dwek for lying to the FBI — about a rental car that had not been returned on time. He sent him to jail to await sentencing on a $50 million bank fraud.
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Solomon Dwek, the key witness in the sweeping federal corruption sting that led to the arrests of dozens of politicians, public officials and five rabbis two years ago, was arrested on car theft charges in Baltimore.
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A former Jersey City City Council candidate who was the first Operation Bid Rig III defendant sentenced is now out of federal prison.
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Solomon Dwek will not be allowed to use the word “bribe” when he talks about payments made to former Secaucus mayor Dennis Elwell in court in the coming weeks, a federal judge rules.
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Attorneys for former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell say they are not concerned about a recent guilty plea by Denis Jaslow, a former Hudson County Board of Elections investigator, who federal officials say has implicated Elwell.
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As the spiritual leader of the nation’s largest Syrian Sephardic community for decades, Rabbi Saul Kassin has met with heads of state and performed countless charitable acts.
But as part of his service to the community, the Brooklyn rabbi was also accused of using his charity to transmit millions of dollars while keeping a cut in his effort to help others avoid paying federal taxes.
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Former Secaucus mayor Dennis Elwell again pleaded not guilty to corruption charges today in federal court, where federal officials filed a superseding indictment that strips former co-defendant Ron Manzo from Elwell’s case.
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Bud Demelier, who admitted to taking $20K from Dwek, remains on the county payroll...
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Hudson County political operative Ronald Manzo pleaded guilty this afternoon in a federal court in Newark to accepting a $5,000 bribe from FBI informant Solomon Dwek in exchange for a meeting with former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell.
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After weeks of delay, the U.S. Attorney's office quietly decided it will not challenge a federal court ruling that tossed out some of the most serious corruption charges in the undercover sting operation that centered on Solomon Dwek.
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The Hoboken City Council argues over whether to remove Councilman Michael Russo as commissioner of the Hoboken Housing Authority, in the wake of revelations in The Jersey Sting of a bribery attempt.
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Solomon Dwek — who became the central figure in the biggest federal corruption sting in New Jersey history — is unlikely to hear his fate anytime soon.
Dwek was due to be sentenced on Monday. But today, U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares, who has repeatedly agreed to a series of postponements, once again put off his sentencing date — this time until March 5, 2012.
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Former Guttenberg councilman Vincent Tabbachino — already facing significant jail time for his conviction last October in the case — pleaded guilty yesterday to additional charges today that could likely extend his time in prison.
Tabbachino, 69, of Fairview, acknowledged laundering $125,000 in funds he believed had come out of an illicit business manufacturing knock-off designer handbags.
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BY ELIZABETH OGUSS
THE MONTCLAIR TIMES
New Jerseyans learn patience while listening to people from other states crack their inevitable lame jokes about "Joisey" and its industrial odors, horrible highways, and malls. But jokes about corruption hit a little closer to home because, well, what IS it about New Jersey and corruption?
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By Ted Sherman
Itzhak Friedlander, who used several religious charities to help launder nearly $200,000 in what became the largest federal undercover sting in New Jersey history, was sentenced today to two years in prison.
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As two veteran investigative reporters who both happen to be Jewish, Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin were not taken by surprise by most of the arrests that came down on July 23, 2009. But involving as it did rabbis who allegedly used synagogues and charities to launder illegal money, it was, as Margolin put it, a case of “man bites dog...”
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By Ted Sherman
When Mariano Vega was first introduced to Solomon Dwek, he was described on the surveillance video that captured the meeting as a "big boss" in Hudson County government.
Today, the former president of the Jersey City Council was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for agreeing to take $30,000 in cash bribes from Solomon Dwek.
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By Ted Sherman
Of all those targeted in what became the biggest FBI sting operation in New Jersey history, Mordchai Fish was among the most secretive.
He changed cell phones constantly. He spoke in code, using Talmudic references to set up meetings to exchange cash. He constantly worried aloud about electronic bugs and had cash couriers all over Borough Park.
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The Hoboken city attorney is reviewing the legitimacy of last night's 5-4 vote accepting Third Ward Councilman Michael Russo's resignation as vice president of the council because Russo voted on the resolution, a city official said today.
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The two investigative journalists who wrote The Jersey Sting released surveillance tapes on Monday afternoon, revealing a meeting between Third Ward Councilman Michael Russo and FBI Operative Solomon Dwek in 2009, discussing a $5,000 donation and potential preferred treatment for zoning variances.
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Moshe Altman, a small-time developer caught up in The Jersey Sting, begged for leniency from a federal judge today, saying FBI informant Solomon Dwek’s charisma and pleas for financial help persuaded him to break the law, as a judge sentenced him to 41 months in federal prison.
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Rabbi Saul Kassin, the 89-year-old spiritual leader of the nation’s largest Syrian Sephardic Jewish congregation, admitted Monday his role in a scheme that used religious charities to launder tens of thousands of dollars.
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NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – All this week, WCBS 880 is rolling out tidbits from a juicy new book about the biggest take-down in the sordid history of New Jersey politics.
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On July 23, 2009, FBI agents descended on New York and New Jersey, arresting more than 40 politicians and Orthodox rabbis in the largest federal corruption case ever in New Jersey’s notoriously corrupt history. The arrests grabbed headlines around the world and upended the race for governor of New Jersey — a campaign eventually won by Chris Christie, who as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor had started the investigation. In this excerpt from “The Jersey Sting,” two reporters who covered the case focus on one of its more surreal aspects — the illegal sale of human kidneys.
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The inside story of an internal inquiry by the Justice Department into the conduct of the acting U.S. Attorney and the FBI division chief after The Jersey Sting was taken down.
Read more in MainJustice.com>>

By Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin
One of Hudson County’s most powerful operatives, a close and feared associate of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, was secretly on the payroll of infamous FBI informant Solomon Dwek, according to a confidential government surveillance video.
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A Wednesday court hearing should be a page-turner for corruption trial watchers. Former assemblyman and frequent Jersey City mayoral candidate Louis Manzo will show up in Newark before U.S. District Judge Jose Linares. Manzo and his brother Ron face two remaining charges, bribery and mail fraud, after most of the complaints against them were tossed out.
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Joe Cardwell, who took $30,000 from Solomon Dwek in an effort to pay off a number of Jersey City officials, pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges yesterday, just two weeks before the scheduled start of his trial.
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A prominent Monmouth County real estate broker and former partner of disgraced developer Solomon Dwek was sentenced to five years’ probation today for hiding more than $82,000 of Dwek’s ill-gotten gains from a bankruptcy trustee.
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New Jersey Monthly excerpts the rise and fall of former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano from The Jersey Sting
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A federal appeals court threw out a major part of the government’s case against Lou Manzo, saying the former assemblyman and Jersey City mayoral candidate could not be charged with selling a public office he did not hold.
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Michael Schaffer, a key go-between in the high-profile sting that nabbed dozens of New Jersey public officials — including former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano — was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in prison.
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U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares has delayed the federal corruption trial of former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell until May to give defense lawyers more time to review the large number of audio and video recordings and prepare their case. The trial was set to begin in February.
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How could Lou Manzo, as a candidate, be acting under official right? He isn’t cloaked with official right until he is an office holder, Judge D. Michael Fisher asked the U.S. Attorney...
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The U.S. Attorney's Office will seek to reverse a ruling that could toss the most serious charges against several defendants in the sweeping corruption investigation.
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Former state Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith was acquitted of accepting $15,000 in bribes that he insisted were campaign contributions.
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"We are here today because the defendant Harvey Smith did this to himself," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenny Kramer. "He wasn’t duped. He wasn’t set up and he wasn’t lured..."
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Moshe Altman was a small-time developer who got caught up in a big-time federal sting. The 40-year-old Union City real estate developer from Monsey, N.Y., was the nexus of a long-running money laundering probe that turned into the biggest public corruption bust in New Jersey history.
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The evidence included notes quickly scribbled on the back of a mustard-stained restaurant placemat, and the now-familiar black-and-white surveillance videos shot from a hidden camera in a cheap diner.
But as the federal corruption trail of former Democratic Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith got underway in federal court in Newark today, something was missing:
Solomon Dwek
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Solomon Dwek, a lightning rod for defense attorneys looking for weaknesses in the government's case, will not testify in the trial of L. Harvey Smith.
Dwek was the focal point of critical cross examination during the trial of Anthony Suarez, who was ultimately acquitted. Prosecutors are expected this time to use Ed Cheatam as their main witness, another player in the Jersey Sting who has already pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate.
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For the first time since 44 people were arrested in a massive corruption scheme, federal authorities have dropped their case against one of the defendants.
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Barry Kantrowitz, a former real estate partner of Solomon Dwek, admitted slipping $82,100 from a hidden cash stash back to Dwek, who was wearing a surveillance wire at the time.
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LaVern Webb-Washington, who admitted taking $15,000 in bribes from Solomon Dwek, is seeking a new trial. She remains free on bail pending her appeal and has been spending her time working with non-profit groups.
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Former Republican Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, convicted for accepting for accepting a $10,000 bribe from FBI informant Solomon Dwek, was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
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Josh is taking a job as senior reporter at the New York Post
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L. Harvey Smith argued he was snared by government informant Solomon Dwek, but a federal judge today barred the former Hudson County Democratic assemblyman from mentioning entrapment at his trial, which is expected to begin at the end of the month.
Meanwhile, three New York men arrested in the Jersey Sting pleaded guilty Tuesday to running unlicensed money transmitting businesses...
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Authorities have charged at least seven people in an international organ-trafficking network based in Kosovo that sold kidneys and other organs purchased or stolen from impoverished victims to patients from all over the world.
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The U.S. Attorney's Office has sought to block the trips, telling a judge the defendants are extreme flight risks.
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The Malibu in Hoboken, which has long been a place to go for eggs and politics, played a starring role in The Jersey Sting, after Peter Cammarano agreed to meet FBI informant Solomon Dwek there. Now it's getting a makeover...
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The sentencing of Daniel Van Pelt, the former New Jersey assemblyman convicted in last year's massive corruption sting, has been moved to Nov. 19 because of a scheduling conflict.
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Former assemblyman to argue entrapment by the government's informant, Solomon Dwek.
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Anthony Suarez, the mayor of Ridgefield, was acquitted of conspiracy, bribery and extortion charges in connection with The Jersey Sting. It marked the first time in more than a decade that federal prosecutors in New Jersey lost a public corruption case. His co-defendent, Vincent Tabbachino, was convicted.
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Eliahu Ben Haim, arrested in last summer’s massive FBI sting, could not convince the court last year to grant his unusual request to leave the country. The 58-year-old rabbi, then facing trial on money laundering charges, had never missed a family bris and wanted permission to go to Israel for the ceremony for grandson number 14.

But now that Ben Haim is actually convicted through a guilty plea, the court has agreed to a second effort for Ben Haim to get to the Holy Land before going to prison.

Federal prosecutors both times argued that if Ben Haim were allowed to leave the country, he might never return. They said that was especially true as it relates to Israel because Ben Haim has so many family and personal connections there.
But Judge Joel Pisano on Thursday granted the rabbi’s request to go to Israel for a week so he can attend a family wedding on Halloween. Pisano ordered a higher bail and told Ben Haim that he has to sign an extradition waiver before he gets on the plane Wednesday. That way, if he tries to escape he would be able to be returned to the U.S. without a battle in Israeli courts.

In June, Ben Haim admitted he used religious charities to launder up to $1.5 million for government informant Solomon Dwek.
From The Star-Ledger

Already facing federal bribery charges, former Jersey City health officer Joseph Castagna has now been charged with pocketing money that food vendors in Jersey City were paying for licenses to operate.
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The most infamous connection between the Malibu Diner and politics is the diner's role as the venue for a meeting attended by Solomon Dwek. Now the iconic Hoboken haunt is getting a new look.
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Testifying in the bribery trial of a Bergen County mayor, Solomon Dwek, the one-time rabbinical student, said he and a partner concocted a scheme to pay life insurance premiums for dying people who couldn’t afford them. When time came to collect, the family of the deceased got 10 percent. Dwek split the remaining 90 percent between his partner and his father’s religious school in Monmouth County.
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Testifying against Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez and Guttenberg tax preparer Vincent “Uncle Vinny” Tabbachino, F.B.I. cooperating witness Solomon Dwek showed his polished skills on the witness stand today, laying out a quid-pro-quo where “$10,000 in cash in the FedEx envelope” bought him unspecified building approvals.
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Solomon Dwek, the fraudster-turned-informant who anchored last year’s sweeping FBI sting, returned to the witness stand today and recounted his epic real estate swindles and named a string of current and former Monmouth County officials he claims to have bribed.
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Fourteen months after being charged with taking bribes from an undercover informant posing as a crooked developer, Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez will finally get what he’s been awaiting so adamantly: a chance to defend himself at trial.
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Attorneys for Ridgefield Mayor Anthony R. Suarez and co-defendant Vincent Tabbachino of Fairview are asking a judge to limit the evidence prosecutors can present when their corruption trial starts on Monday.
They want to prevent Solomon Dwek, the FBI informant at the center of last year's massive corruption sting, from offering his opinions about their guilt when he returns to the witness stand.
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Bayonne Mayor Mark Smith met with Solomon Dwek, the government informant at the center of last year's massive political corruption sting, according to the mayor's chief of staff.
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Jury selection is set to begin in the federal corruption trial of Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez.
In a trial set to begin Oct. 4, Suarez and Guttenberg tax preparer Vincent Tabbachino face extortion and bribery charges. Tabbachino also is accused of money laundering.
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Today is the day former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano is scheduled to turn himself in to federal authorities to begin serving his 2 year sentence for one count of corruption charges.
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Former Jersey City Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith has embarked upon a multi-pronged legal strategy to have federal corruption charges against him dismissed.
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JERSEY CITY — Mariano Vega Jr., the former president of the city council in Jersey City, admitted in federal court in Newark today that he accepted $30,000 in bribes from an FBI informant, marking the 20th guilty plea to stem from last year’s sweeping corruption sting.
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JERSEY CITY — A Jersey City councilman charged in last year's massive FBI sting resigned today after months of resisting calls to step down from office.
Mariano Vega Jr. was arrested along with scores of others and charged with taking $30,000 from Solomon Dwek, an undercover informant posing as a crooked developer trying to bribe public officials.
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RIDGEFIELD — A federal judge has blocked Mayor Anthony Suarez's request for a separate trial from his alleged co-conspirator in a scheme to accept a $10,000 cash bribe from an FBI informant.
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DEAL — A Brooklyn man who admitted supplying cash to a money laundering operation run by a Monmouth County rabbi was sentenced in federal court today to 18 months in prison.
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TRENTON — Daniel M. Van Pelt, a former state Assemblyman convicted in connection with last year's massive federal sting, has fired his defense team.
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TRENTON — New Jersey's Republican State Committee has most of the money donated by a crooked real estate developer a year after pledging to give the tainted contributions to charity.
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By Ted Sherman
Just over a year ago, Peter J. Cammarano III, then 31, stood with his hand on the Bible, his wife and 2-year-old daughter beside him, and was sworn into office as Hoboken’s youngest mayor.

Today, standing alone in a Newark courtroom, he was sentenced to two years in prison for his part in the largest federal sting operation in New Jersey history.

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