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KEEP IN MIND The court-appointed trustee looking into Bernie Madoff's scheme unearthed a labyrinth of interrelated international funds, institutions and entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth...... and assets and businesses in 11 places overseas. Madoff had numerous connections to tax-exempt religious affinity charities. No question, tax evasion and money laundering was the name of the game for the wealthy Madoffians-----businessmen who were funneling income to Madoff to avoid US taxes, who were posing as "philanthropists" and religious leaders.

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NOTE: Deal is a posh seaside community of luxury homes. Solomon Dwek became a govt witness in order to stay out of jail---Dwek and his wife ran an Orthodox religious school founded by his father, a Rabbi………and was running a money laundering real estate scheme for the wealthy Deal community of Syrian Sephardic Jews. Dwek famously bounced $50 million checks at a drive-up bank window.

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Thursday, 23 July 2009
US Attorney: The money laundering investigation

Rabbi Eliahu Ben Haim of the Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal is a key figure in the investigation The money laundering conspiracy involved high-ranking religious figures and their associates in Brooklyn and Deal. Among them was Rabbi Eliahu Ben Haim, of Long Branch, the principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal.

Typically, according to the criminal complaints, Haim received bank checks in amounts ranging from tens of thousands of dollars to $160,000 at a time made payable to a charitable, tax exempt organization associated with Haim and his synagogue. To complete the money laundering cycle, Haim would return the amount of the check in cash to the cooperating witness, less a cut for Haim, typically 10 percent.

Haim's source of cash for funding the money laundering was, according to the complaints, an Israeli in Israel who, Haim said, he had worked with for years. For a fee, that source would make cash available through other individuals charged Thursday who ran cash houses in Brooklyn. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were regularly available from the cash houses for Haim to return to his money laundering clients, including the government's cooperating witness.

Similar circles of money launderers in Brooklyn and Deal operated separately but occasionally co-mingled activities and participants. In most cases, the rings were led by rabbis who used charitable, non-profit entities connected to their synagogues to "wash" money that they understood came from criminal activity like bank fraud, counterfeit goods and other illegal sources, according to the criminal complaints.

Since such large amounts of cash were being transacted — tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per transaction, often multiple times in a week — the rabbis made significant sums in fees, which typically ran between five and ten percent per transaction.

One of the other money laundering operations was allegedly led by Rabbi Saul Kassin, a leading Brooklyn rabbi, and another by Rabbi Edmund Nahum, the leader of a synagogue in Deal. In one secretly recorded conversation, Nahum tells the cooperating witness that he should launder his money through a number of rabbis. "The more it's spread the better," Nahum said, according to his criminal complaint.

In another conversation, Kassin allegedly asked the cooperating witness — who at the moment was conducting a $25,000 transaction with Kassin — why he didn't do all his business with Haim. The cooperating witness replied that he had by that time already conducted between $600,000 and $700,000 in money laundering transactions with Haim. Another group of alleged money launderers was led by Rabbi Mordchai Fish, a rabbi at a Brooklyn synagogue. Fish's brother, Rabbi Lavel Schwartz, a rabbi, was also charged with money laundering.

Also arrested was Levi Deutsch, an Israeli living in Israel who, according to the complaints, was a high-level source of cash from overseas for funding the bank checks that passed through charitable entities. Deutsch, who traveled frequently between Israel and New York, explained to the cooperating witness that the source of his cash was the "diamond business (and) other, other things," according to the complaints.

He further explained that he was associated with a Swiss banker who charged "two, three points" per $1 million laundered through him. (Deutsch is a different person than the Israeli working with Haim.)

Finally, another alleged money launderer was Moshe "Michael" Altman, a Hudson County real estate developer who, according to the criminal complaints, "washed" more than $600,000 in dirty checks to cash for the cooperating witness through charitable, non-profit entities.

Altman is also the intermediary who introduced the cooperating witness to Jersey City building inspector John Guarini, who allegedly took $20,000 from the cooperating witness in July 2007, and $40,000 in total over time.

Here are the individuals charged in the money laundering investigation and summaries of their alleged conduct as described in the criminal complaints:

Rabbi Saul Kassin, the chief rabbi of Sharee Zion in Brooklyn, who laundered more than $200,000 with the cooperating witness between June 2007 and last December by accepting "dirty" bank checks from the cooperating witness and exchanging them for clean checks from Kassin's charitable organization, after taking a fee of 10 percent for each transaction.

Rabbi Edmund Nahum, principal rabbi at Deal Synagogue in Deal, who laundered money both acting alone and with Kassin. Nahum laundered $185,000 between June 2007 and last December by accepting dirty checks from the cooperating witness and exchanging them for clean checks from his own and Kassin's charitable organizations, after taking a fee of 10 percent for each transaction.

Both Kassin and Nahum also laundered money to create fictitious tax deductions by accepting checks made payable to their charitable organizations, which created the appearance of charitable donations. They then deducted their 10 percent fee for laundering the checks through their charitable organization accounts and returned to the originators checks drawn on one of their accounts for 90 percent of the value of the original checks. These return checks would be payable to a name designated by the originators.

Rabbi Eli Ben Haim, principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal, laundered $1.5 million with the cooperating witness between June 2007 and last February by accepting dirty checks from the cooperating witness and exchanging them for cash, after taking a fee of approximately 10 percent for each transaction. His source for the cash was an Israeli who, for a fee of 1.5 percent, supplied the cash through intermediary cash houses run by defendants Weiss, Ehrental, and Cohen, who are described below. Ben Haim remarked that at one time he had laundered between $7 million and $8 million in one year, and earned $1 million laundering money in that year.

Cash House Operators for Haim transactions:

Arye Weiss operated cash house from his residence in Brooklyn for Haim money laundering transactions; charged with supplying $300,000 in cash.

Yeshayahu Ehrental operated cash house from his office in Brooklyn for Haim money laundering transactions; charged with supplying $300,000 in cash.

Schmulik Cohen operated cash house from his residence in Brooklyn for Haim money laundering transactions; charged with supplying $850,000 in cash.

Rabbi Mordchai Fish, head of Congregation Sheves Achim in Brooklyn. Working with his brother Rabbi Lavel Schwartz of Brooklyn, Fish laundered approximately $585,000 with the cooperating witness by accepting dirt y checks and exchanging them for cash, after taking a fee of 15 percent for each transaction. His source for the cash for some of the transactions was Levi Deutsch, who supplied the cash through an intermediary cash house run by Spira; for other transactions his source for the cash is unidentified but the cash was provided by cash couriers Gertner and Goldhirsh and cash houses run by Pollack and Weber. On two occasions over the course of his dealings with the Cooperating witness, Fish gave the Cooperating witness new chips for his cell phone to thwart any law enforcement attempt to wiretap their telephone calls.

Levi Deutsch, the Israeli supplier of cash for a number of Fish money laundering transactions. For a fee of two or three percent, he supplied cash for the transactions through intermediary Spira's cash house and is charged with supplying $200,000 in cash.

Cash House Operators and Cash Couriers for Fish transactions:

Binyomin Spira operated a cash house from a bakery in Brooklyn in which he received cash from Levi Deutsch and supplied cash for Fish money laundering transactions, charged with supplying $200, 000 in cash.

Yolie Gertner acted as a cash courier for Fish money laundering transactions, charged with moving $185,000 in cash.

David Goldhirsh acted as a cash courier for Fish money laundering transactions, charged with moving $100,000 in cash.

Abe Pollack operated cash house from his office in Brooklyn (which he shared with Naftoly Weber) for Fish money laundering transactions, charged with supplying $125,000 in cash.

Naftoly Weber operated cash house from his office in Brooklyn (which he shared with Abe Pollack) for Fish money laundering transactions, charged with supplying $125,000 in cash.

Additionally, money laundering charges were filed against Shimon Haber and Itzak Friedlander, associates of Michael Altman.