All language subtitles for American Greed s06e16 Solomon Dwek The Jersey Score.eng

In this episode of American Greed,
Solomon Dweck is an expert flim flammer.

He was a guy that ran a $400 million
real estate Ponzi scheme in his head and

on the back of a napkin.

Dweck then commits a $50 million bank
fraud and becomes an informant in the

biggest case of corruption and greed in
New Jersey history.

Dweck was starring in a movie that only
he knew was being shot.

Don't forget me, and I won't forget you
guys. It sounds like a guy channeling

Goodfellas. Whatever the script is for
Ponzi schemes, frauds, cooperation, rip

it up and throw it out. This one's
different.

In the early morning of July 23, 2009,
more than 300 FBI and other federal

agents span out across New Jersey and
Brooklyn, New York.

They're positioned outside Orthodox
Jewish synagogues and million -dollar

mansions along the Jersey Shore.

This was the biggest roundup of
corruption in New Jersey state history.

That is saying something.

Graft is nothing new in the Garden
State.

There literally have been more than 100,
perhaps approaching 200 arrests in just

the last few years out in New Jersey
where politicians and municipal

have been caught taking bribes, and
almost all of them have been convicted.

At 6 a .m., the go -ahead is broadcast
from FBI Central Command in Newark.

Newark CP to all teams.

Execute, execute, execute.

And like a well -choreographed dance...
Arrest teams start knocking on doors.

Acting U .S. Attorney Ralph Mara, a 25
-year veteran prosecutor, waits

for news from the field.

We're waiting to hear reports on how
they did.

Did they make the arrests? Were there
any problems?

What did they find in evidence?

This is NJ Team 3.

Subject is in custody.

In all, the teams arrest 44 people, and
one by one...

They parade past a swelling sea of
reporters into the FBI's Newark

for processing.

WNBC's Jonathan Deans is the first
television reporter on the scene.

They literally are carting the suspects
away by the busload here. We had a sense

that this was going to be a big case. We
did not know the details.

But then when you started seeing just
the sheer volume of car after car

up in front of the FBI's offices in New
Jersey.

That was when it really hit me that, my
goodness, this is going to be huge.

We saw rabbis being walked in with
yarmulkes on and politicians coming

in. We saw political operatives being
walked in.

There was a deputy mayor of Jersey City
who we later found out was a former

stripper back in days of burlesque. The
characters themselves made it surreal.

And as the criminal complaints are made
public, they lift the veil on systemic

corruption, brazen even by New Jersey
standards.

The initial complaints as they first
came out alleged massive bribery of

politicians, along with money laundering
of incredible amounts associated with

ultra -Orthodox community leaders,
rabbinic figures.

And then what stunned everybody was an
illegal kidney brokering scheme that had

been uncovered.

The complaints are based on hundreds of
hours of secret surveillance tapes

captured by one person, a mysterious CW,
or cooperating witness, who had

committed bank fraud some three years
earlier.

You follow the press release, you follow
the indictment, and you get a clear

roadmap that there was an informant
involved.

and we quickly learned it was Solomon
Dweck.

To understand Solomon Dweck, you have to
understand where he comes from, Deal,

New Jersey, home to one of America's
wealthiest Syrian Sephardic Jewish

communities.

Sam Antar grew up in the Sephardic
Jewish community in Brooklyn.

It's a tight -knit community that traces
its origins back to 1492, the Spanish

Inquisition. They were expelled from
Spain.

And they moved to North Africa and
countries in the Middle East. To survive

discrimination that they encountered,
they maintained a very insular culture

stay together.

Solomon is the son of the rabbi of the
synagogue of Deir.

Within that community, the rabbi meant
everything. And that gave Solomon a

of credibility, even within a very
insular community.

But instead of following in his father's
righteous footsteps, Dweck learns how

to pay people off to get what he wants.

It's a lesson he learns in high school.

Solomon admitted that he paid off a
teacher in his high school to pass

him in math because he was going to fail
math.

So he paid him $50 and earned a passing
grade.

At 19, Dweck gets his first taste of the
deal.

One of his father's friends offers him a
deal to flip a

house. Solomon is going to fix up the
house, and they'll split the profits.

that's his first entrance into real
estate.

At 23, Solomon Dweck meets and marries
19 -year -old Pearl Sutton, whose family

also belongs to the deal synagogue.

To you, living outside the community,
Solomon Dweck may be a George Costanza

from Seinfeld, but within the community,
he's a George Clooney.

He has all the elements that gain
people's trust, and people want to be

his life.

Soon, Dweck puts his people's skills to
good use as chief fundraiser at the Deal

Yeshiva, a Jewish day school.

He was taking more than $200 ,000 a
year.

doing this. His wife was making $100
,000.

We talked to teachers and administrators
at the deal. Nobody ever saw either one

of them.

But Dweck's idea of fundraising is
blatantly illegal.

He uses a common tax dodge that appeals
to wealthy donors.

Journalists Josh Margolin and Ted
Sherman detail Dweck's scams in their

The Jersey Sting.

Here's how the tax dodge works.

A donor will write a check to the
school, let's say in the amount of $100

Of that $100 ,000, the school takes 10 %
and DWEG takes 5%.

Out the back door, $85 ,000 comes back
to the donor. So the donor then

is allowed to take a full $100 ,000 tax
deduction as a charitable donation.

It worked out well for the religious
school because they were getting 10 % of

the... Donation worked out well for the
donor because he got credit on his

income taxes for $100 ,000 donation.

Just didn't work out too well for the
IRS.

For Dweck, it's working out so well that
he branches out to other religious

charities to launder even more money.

Among certain sub -levelments of the
community, it's a cook -the -books

where the government is not entitled to
any of their money.

So they will not pay taxes at just about
any cost. They will not record

transactions. They'll do whatever they
can to evade and not pay their fair

of taxes.

But for all the money moving through the
yeshiva, the Dwecks lived modestly by

Jersey Shore standards in their $1 .2
million home.

He didn't seem to be the kind of guy who
wanted the money.

in order to live the high life. It
seemed like the money was just a

piece of it. He was addicted to the
adrenaline of the deal, of the chase.

By 2000, Dweck's other business, fixing
up and flipping real estate, is going

gangbusters. And like a crazed Monopoly
player, he starts buying up properties,

from offices and retail space to a
sandwich shop.

Nothing was on paper when they made
these deals. It was all in Solomon's

and the deals are getting bigger and
bigger and bigger.

The 28 -year -old real estate mogul is
quickly becoming a big shot in the close

-knit Syrian community, and Dweck sees
an opportunity to prey on his own

Next on American Greed, watch Solomon
Dweck shepherd investors and banks into

what he calls schnookie or bum deals.

If you cared to really research what he
was doing, it was a house of cards, and

it was pretty obviously a house of
cards. But everybody wanted to trust him

every step.

Everyone wanted to trust him.

By 2004, Solomon Dweck is revered in New
Jersey's Syrian Jewish community, and

investors want in on his lucrative real
estate deals.

Within that Syrian Orthodox community,
and within many Jewish communities,

there's a biblical prohibition against
the charging of interest.

So the way these deals were structured
was, I'm selling you an investment.

It's called profit participation.

The investors figure Solomon is buying
something and then is going to turn it

around very quickly.

There's the profit.

But Dweck isn't selling the properties.

He's using new investors and bank loans
to fund a multi -million dollar

investment scam.

He was mortgaging properties two and
three times over to generate a cash

for himself. In some cases, he was
getting loans on properties he actually

didn't even own.

And he was using that money to pay off
investors.

Dweck even ropes his rich uncle into the
scheme.

His Uncle Joey saw this success and came
up to him one day and said, Everybody's

in real estate. How do I get involved in
this? And Solomon didn't blink an eye.

He said, Well, I have this property.
It's going to cost you X amount of

and we'll pay off in 60 days.

And he was hooked.

Without any due diligence, Dweck's Uncle
Joey puts up nearly $60 million of his

own money.

and cash he borrows from banks.

It's not long before Dweck notices that
no one, not his uncle, not even his

lenders, are keeping a close eye on what
he's doing.

On the face of it, I think people waive
the due diligence because the vestiges

of success and credibility were all over
him. I think it almost would have

looked in the community as insulting to
pry further.

By 2006, Dweck's empire grows to more
than $400 million in private investments

and loans from several banks, including
HSBC.

In a statement to American Greed, HSBC
says it conducts robust due diligence.

But attorney Dennis Carney says it seems
the bank has been careless in lending

to Solomon Dweck.

They gave him loans on properties that
didn't exist, properties he didn't own.

Properties he did own and had already
sold.

You name it, he did it.

But income from Dweck's properties no
longer covers the interest on all these

loans. And he realizes he'll never be
able to repay his creditors.

And this is where the noose starts to
tighten around his neck. He's into Uncle

Joey for $50 or $60 million. He's into
other members of the community for $30

million.

The banks are breathing down his neck,
and now he needs and cannot find huge

sources of capital.

Eventually, HSBC discovers that it, too,
has been lured into Dweck's schnookie,

or bum deals, and it's out $20 million.

And so they make the demand insistently,
you wire in that $20 million,

or we're going to the lawyers and we're
going to blow this up.

Dweck assures the bank that the money
will be wired first thing after the

Passover holiday to arrive on Monday
morning, April 24th.

But that morning, no wire goes through,
and Dweck has a meeting at the bank that

afternoon.

This guy's whole game is based on, I'm
on to the next scam.

So where you or I would feel pressure,
he doesn't feel any of that. He's on to

the next scheme.

What's the next scheme?

I'm going to go kite a check.

Check kiting is one of the oldest frauds
in the book.

Check kiting is simply moving money
between or among accounts to create the

illusion that there is money in accounts
which doesn't exist.

Dweck's plan is to access those non
-existent funds and wire the cash to

And on his way into HSBC, he makes a pit
stop at the Eatontown, New Jersey

branch. a PNC bank.

Dennis Carney, a former attorney for
PNC, explains what happens next.

He now pulls up to a drive -in window,
and he puts in the pneumatic tube a

in the amount of $25 ,212 ,000, a wacky
amount.

The teller examines the check.

It's made out to one of Dweck's
companies.

Drawn on a separate Dweck business
account at PNC.

So what she does is she logs into the
system to check the source of the funds.

She turns around and she goes, Solomon,
you wrote this on a closed account.

Dweck casually shrugs it off and
reassures her that PNC corporate is

the account.

PNC accepts the check, deposits it
into...

the open business account, and the check
is, of course, drawn on a closed

business account.

Satisfied, Dweck pulls away and heads to
Manhattan for his 4 o 'clock meeting at

HSBC.

It's a great moment for him. It's a
challenging moment. It's a moment where,

know, a con man really needs to step up
his game, and Dweck certainly did that.

Dweck waltzes into a conference room at
HSBC.

where he's met by the bank's chief
credit and risk officer and a number of

executives.

Everybody is very angry over the fact
that this loan is past due, and where's

the money?

And Solomon says, I have the money. They
put him on a speakerphone. He dials the

automated phone number.

And lo and behold, at the other end, the
reporting indicates there is about $2

,700 in the account, with another $25
million about to clear.

HSBC officials threaten that if the $20
million wire doesn't arrive from PNC

Bank by the next morning, they'll go to
their lawyers.

But Dweck delivers and transfers the
money to HSBC.

His debt has been paid off.

Wire transfers under federal or state
law are complete the minute the send

button is hit.

It is irretrievable.

But Dweck can't leave well enough alone.

And the next day, he presses his luck.

He goes to another PNC branch and tries
to do it again.

Another $25 million.

The tellers there take it, are about to
credit his account.

And one of the tellers there thinks,
maybe I better check this.

She calls up the head teller over in
Eatontown.

Eatontown is the same branch that Dweck
had ripped off the day before.

And the head teller in Eatontown said,
is Solomon in that branch?

Yes. Is he trying to give you $25
million? Yes.

Don't do it.

Like a trumpet of doom, the teller
refuses the deposit.

They were frantic at PNC Bank because
this was not a small check -kiting

This is $25 million that the bank is out
right now.

and they want to know where the money
is.

HSBC is not required to return the money
to PNC Bank, and in May 2006,

PNC sues Dweck and attempts to freeze
his assets.

This is the first crack in the dam. This
is the moment when suddenly the House

of Cards is coming down.

Solomon Dweck has now committed a $50
million bank fraud, a federal offense

could land him in prison for 30 years.

Next on American Greed, Solomon Dweck's
day of reckoning is close at hand.

The judge who I've known a very long
time, he came nose to nose to me.

And he said, you have no idea what
you're messing with.

And he was absolutely right.

In May 2006,

33 -year -old Solomon Dweck is the
target of a civil suit filed by PNC

alleging that Dweck stole a whopping $22
.8 million.

The bank wants the judge to freeze
Dweck's assets to recoup its cash.

I don't think he got up one day and
said, I'm going to do a $400 million

scheme. I think what happened was this
was a deal junkie who just OD'd on what

he loved doing.

Dweck's portfolio includes more than 400
properties, and it appears to be worth

somewhere between $300 and $500 million
on paper.

The judge freezes his assets.

The Asbury Park Press publishes that.
Everyone in Deal and Brooklyn sees it.

You've now got your worst nightmare
coming true.

The courtroom is packed with Dweck's
investors.

The judge, inundated by the sheer number
of creditors, appoints Don LaMuro as a

fiscal agent to sell off Dweck's
properties.

I was not expecting to have to send back
to my office to get a box full of

business cards so I could hand them out.
It really showed how charismatic

Solomon was, how diverse his holdings
were, how many people were affected.

More than 80 banks, former business
partners, and individuals filed claims

against Dweck, adding up to $338
million.

The priority was, can we help the people
that have invested their lifetime

savings? And a number of those that
first day came up to me with tears in

eyes, saying, how could this be?

A little more than a week after PNC sues
Solomon Dweck, the feds arrest him at

his home and charge him with bank fraud.

Dweck knows he's in a tight spot, and
the only way to avoid a 30 -year prison

sentence is to strike a deal with then U
.S. attorney Chris Christie.

But Christie, who declined to be
interviewed, is in no mood to play ball.

Chris Christie is a strategic thinker.

He was always committed to getting
bigger and better cases. But it's a

equation on his part.

I have a huge bank fraud, one of the
biggest bank frauds ever in the state of

New Jersey. Why would I get into a deal
with this guy?

There's no reason to do it. And that is
the message that's basically sent back

to Dweck's lawyer over and over and over
again.

When Dweck's attorney finally sits down
with prosecutors.

He serves up information about a large
-scale money laundering operation.

Orthodox rabbis who had washed cash with
Dweck during his days at the deal

yeshiva.

But Dweck also has something else to
offer, something more enticing to

prosecutors.

Politicians on the take.

Christie's ears perk up.

Typically in New Jersey, you'd think
it's a recipe for a bad political move

be arresting a bunch of rabbis.

Christie was uninterested in it, but he
wanted the corruption cases, so he went

along. He put Dweck on a very tight
leash.

In late 2006, Solomon Dweck is at the
precipice. To become a cooperating

witness, or CW, he'll have to turn on
his own people and lift the veil on

systemic criminal activity that's been
plaguing his community for years.

Dweck will have to become a moser, a
rat.

A moser is Hebrew for informer.

And it carries with it a tremendous
stigma. Jews were trained, you don't

your own people and inform to the
secular authorities because of all these

centuries of persecutions.

If somebody gets caught and they help
the government go after other people by

agreeing to wear a wire, they're
excommunicated.

In January 2007, Dweck makes a fateful
decision and signs a cooperation

agreement to go undercover for the
government.

In exchange, the feds will recommend a
reduced sentence.

But without knowing how far Dweck will
take the government, Chris Christie

no promise of how much time he'll spend
in prison.

Prosecutors will just have to wait and
see.

The FBI and corruption prosecutors in
the U .S. Attorney's Office were able to

convince Chris Christie to greenlight
this case purely on the basis of there's

plenty of smoke, so there must be fire.

When American Greed returns, Solomon
Dweck goes undercover with a camera

rolling.

I'm an investor, developer.

I don't want to be left on the bottom of
the pile.

When the people forget about me, I get
jerked around.

So that's why I do what I got to do with
the right people. We take care of our

friends.

By March 2007,

Solomon Dweck, the FBI's new informant,
is wired up and ready to go to work.

The operation has two targets, ultra
-religious money launderers and corrupt

politicians.

The fact that he was a past crook or an
accused crook, in some ways, gave him

some street cred, gave him some
credibility to perhaps pull off and be

in this money laundering scheme.

Those in his own community perhaps would
not think that he would be cooperating

with the FBI and would turn on his own
community.

This is the first big test for Dweck,
who must prove to prosecutors that he

stay on script and get the job done.

In his rap with the bad guys, he would
lay it out out loud.

I'm trying to launder this money. I'm
trying to take it out of the bankruptcy

without the bankruptcy trustee or the
bankruptcy court knowing about it. Can

convert it into clean cash for me?

Ralph Mara, first assistant to U .S.
Attorney Chris Christine, says one of

Dweck's early money laundering targets
is an orthodox real estate developer.

Amusingly, his office was over a
laundromat, and he often referred to

was doing, he related it to washing
machines.

Those washing machines are a complex
international network of religious

charities, rabbis, and couriers.

At the start, when Dweck was trying to
launder only $35 ,000 or $40 ,000, the

rabbis didn't want any of that action.
It was too small for them.

They were putting themselves out. They
needed bigger dollar figures. We're

talking about transactions that were
easily $80 ,000 at a pop, $100 ,000,

,000. One launderer introduces Dweck to
another, and soon Dweck's network grows

to more than 15 people, including five
Orthodox rabbis.

It was a group of organized criminals,
and they had a whole system in place on

how they did this. They had very strict
rules for Dweck about not speaking about

what they were doing.

These rabbis hide their disgraceful
deeds behind a facade of righteousness,

they use Jewish charities as a front.

Among them is Rabbi Mordecai Fish, one
of Dweck's most productive launderers.

Fish is a fascinating character. He's a
funny guy. He says funny things to Dweck

on surveillances. He leaves messages but
doesn't actually leave messages. He

gets on the phone and starts singing on
Dweck's voicemail.

He spoke in code.

He wouldn't identify other people by
name.

I mean, all the trappings that would go
with somebody who's in an organized

criminal enterprise but is very shrewd,
almost to the point of paranoia about

becoming detected.

In Sopranos, they would talk about
thousands of dollars as boxes of ziti.

So in Fischer's case, he would, instead
of boxes of ziti, because that's not in

the Hasidic tradition, he would talk
about money as a gemara. The gemara is

of the Talmud.

I need the names on the gemaras.

Do you have to have all the words on the
spot? Yeah, yeah, yeah, everything

there.

So make some miracles happen. Call me
back with the names.

I'll see you then while you're in place.

Dweck quickly becomes one of Fish's best
customers, washing $585 ,000 and

receiving the cash in boxes of Apple
Jack cereal.

And though the money laundering
investigation is paying off, by the end

Dweck has made little headway into the
political corruption side of the

investigation. And U .S. Attorney Chris
Christie is nearly ready to close up

shop.

Chris Christie had been hard on them at
this point in saying, we're not getting

anywhere. We only have a bunch of money
laundering cases. Where are my corrupt

politicians? This case is going nowhere.

But then in early 2008, Dweck slices
into a whole new part of the

In one meeting that the feds described
to us in great depth,

they turned to Christie with smiles on
their faces and they say.

We have somebody who's selling illegal
kidneys.

That person is Levi Itzhak Rosenbaum, a
real estate broker from Brooklyn who

sells the parts for 150 grand apiece.

This is another rock that we turn over,
and it turns out there's all this slime

underneath it. The circumstances of
grabbing some impoverished person and

bringing them over here and grabbing one
of their kidneys for...

maybe $10 ,000, and then turning around
selling it for $120 ,000, $150 ,000.

Not good circumstances.

Dweck needs no introduction, as his own
grandfather had purchased a kidney

through Rosenbaum.

So Dweck reaches out to the broker with
the line that he needs a kidney for his

secretary's uncle.

Nine months later, Rosenbaum finds a
donor.

And in November 2008, the feds realized
the investigation could take a perilous

turn.

We obviously didn't want it to go past a
certain point, past the point when

somebody was being cut open.

Dweck had arranged various excuses to
put off actually bringing the person

to do the deed.

You know, one thing after the next with
this guy. First he's sick, then he gets

a virus, then he's in the hospital, now
he has a mini -stroke.

I don't know what to tell you. It's
crazy.

These things are never simple, right?

I would like to meet this guy once.

Okay, we'll set something up. I guess
these people, once something goes wrong

with them, everything happens. One thing
after the next. It's crazy.

It's like my grandfather, the same
story. Every week, something else.

At the Fed's direction, Dweck puts
Rosenbaum on ice and refocuses his

on netting corrupt politicians.

U .S. Attorney Chris Christie's main
objective.

It was really part of Chris's M .O. that
he was usually impatient with

investigations, that he didn't want to
do anything to screw it up, but it was

always, let's move this, let's get it
done, when can we get this done?

But in December 2008, Christie steps
down, and Ralph Mara becomes acting U

attorney.

It's now more important than ever that
Dweck deliver corrupt politicians before

the appointment of the next U .S.
attorney.

who could put a stop to the whole
operation.

Next, the feds clean up dirty Jersey.

Often when you think about these payoffs
and these corruptions, you think mafia.

You think narcotics trafficking.

Solomon Dweck doesn't really fit into
that paradigm.

So in some ways, he's the perfect
undercover.

By 2009, Solomon Dweck has been working
as an undercover informant for the feds

for nearly two years.

Journalist Ted Sherman.

He is being set up with rabbis
laundering tens of thousands of dollars.

being set up with politicians.

He's driving from Brooklyn to Queens to
Monmouth County to Jersey City. He is

eating in one restaurant after another.
When did he have time to sleep?

So far, Dweck has uncovered a massive
international money laundering scheme

a human organ trafficking operation.

But he has yet to pull in any corrupt
public officials.

What the U .S. Attorney's Office is
trying to do is use the money laundering

operation as a means to getting into the
political corruption end of what

they're really interested in.

It's through one of these launderers
that Dweck is introduced to a crooked

building inspector.

That introduction leads Dweck to
political fixers and consultants who are

to political officials.

And the fixers, in turn, then refer
Dweck to better plugged -in players, and

that takes him into the inner sanctum of
ranking politicians.

Dweck assumes the name David Essenbach.

A name given to him by one of the money
launderers who was nervous about dealing

with the infamous Solomon Dweck.

David Esenbach came in and his spiel was
he wanted to build beautiful luxury

developments in northern New Jersey.

The one he used most was that he was
going to build a luxury high -rise condo

a chromium waste dump in Jersey City.

And he needed to fast track.

The approval process. And that's how he
lured the politicians in.

You know, people are Democrats, people
are Republicans.

I'm green. You understand?

Green party? Like your sweater. Green
is, you know, cash.

I don't want to have any conflicts and
stuff.

Dweck's payoffs arrived via FedEx
envelopes.

When you saw a FedEx envelope come out
of Solomon's car or out of his jacket,

you knew a payoff was about to be made.

That spring, Dweck is in Jersey City
looking for approvals and mayors on the

take. There's a series of elections that
are about to occur, springtime

elections, in Jersey City in Hoboken.
And he finally finds himself at a

set up by one of the fixers sitting
across from the deputy mayor of Jersey

Leona Baldini.

Leona Baldini is a well -known Jersey
City real estate broker.

and one of Mayor Jerry Healy's closest
confidants.

Baldini also has a colorful past as the
burlesque dancer Hope Diamond, the gem

of the exotics.

The feds hope Baldini will pave the way
to Mayor Healy.

Dweck pitched the building on the
chromium site and pitched that he wanted

exceed the zoning. And could she help?
He was prepared to give political

contributions.

But he needed to know that they were
promising to get him what he wanted.

What we're trying to do is put money
into different funds so we can, when we

need it, funnel it back into the mayor,
which everybody does.

So this is for the Jersey City
Democratic Committee.

I'm the treasurer for the Jersey, he'll
be for Mayor 09.

Okay.

That week, I think it's a max of $2 ,600
per person.

But we don't have a problem with that. I
know.

I go through them with the cash, and
then they do whatever they've got to do.

Whatever they have to do, yeah.

It's not just Baldini's boss who will
benefit.

She'll get a piece, too.

Exclusive brokerage rights to Dweck's
bogus development on the chromium waste

site.

This 10 was for this Democratic thing.
I'll do another 10 for healing and then

before election we'll do more. And then
you're my person for obviously all the

real estate. I have full faith in you.

Good, thank you.

Hoboken, Jersey City's neighbor to the
north, is also in the midst of a mayoral

election.

After Dweck has this great series of
good luck moves, meeting the fixers, the

fixers get a real appetite.

for Dweck. And they start aggressively
courting Dweck to bring him in for other

politicians. And the big game there is
Peter Camerano.

31 -year -old Peter Camerano is
contesting a very expensive mayoral

May. He had everything going for him. He
was a young, bright election lawyer,

married with a baby, the bright, young
next generation of

leaders in that town.

But there's one thing standing between
Camerano and his dream job, cash.

He doesn't have any.

So the fixers reach out to Dweck and
say, we want to hook you up with Peter

Camerano. You're a guy with a lot of
money to spend. He's a candidate who

a lot of money.

Let's make a marriage.

Dweck meets with Camerano and his
middlemen here at the Malibu Diner in

Camerano was a much more willing
accomplice in this. And so he went far

beyond what they even were hoping back
at the FBI.

And Camerano himself elaborated, the
people who are with me get to the front

the line. He was actually filling in the
blanks for the feds. And with Camerano,

one of his lines was the people who are
against him get ground into dust, which

was... Basically, you know, the killer
line for the prosecutors, they felt that

that just was a home run for them.

Camerano barely edges out his runoff
opponent by 161 votes, becoming

youngest mayor.

And by the time he is sworn in on July
1st, the Fed sensed that it's time to

stop the investigation.

The agents are tired. They're exhausted.

A ton of money has been spent.

on the corruption cases and on the money
laundering. Some of the money

laundering cases are now years old and
the evidence could go stale. Dweck needs

to begin the end.

The Fed set the date of July 23rd for
their takedown.

And it's now up to Solomon Dweck to set
up targets ranging from money launderers

to mayors. The Fed's like arresting
money launderers with cash on them. In

case of the political corruption,

investigations. What they do is they set
up meetings a day or two in advance of

the arrest.

Dweck will pass a bribe.

These guys will hopefully to the feds
still have their bribes on hand so they

can arrest them with the cash as
evidence.

Next on American Greed, the feds execute
one of the biggest raids in New Jersey

history. And I liken it to just weeding
the garden. You've got to keep weeding,

weeding, weeding.

It might even be tedious, but if you
don't do it, the weeds take over.

July 23rd, 2009,

6 a .m.

More than 300 FBI and other federal and
local law enforcement officers are in

position across the tri -state area.

To send out an arrest, you're not
sending out one or two people. You're

sending out at least six, maybe more.
And if it's accompanied by a search

warrant, the search warrant team could
easily be ten, for example, or more.

When the teams finally get the go
-ahead, they spring into action,

people. When these arrests happened,
they were coming in by the carload.

When they left the FBI office, they were
leaving by the busload.

They were taking them out by the dozens
and putting them onto buses because

there were so many suspects in this
case, they had to be bused to court.

As media inquiries pour in, acting U .S.
Attorney Ralph Mera prepares for the

largest press conference ever held
inside the U .S. Attorney's office.

Today, we're here to announce the
takedown of a large -scale, dual -track

investigation on the public corruption
side.

The FBI and the IRS have arrested and
noticed for arrest 29 individuals,

including assemblymen and mayors.

On the other side, the FBI and IRS have
arrested and summoned 15 members

of connected international money
laundering rings, including five rabbis

their associates.

On July 31st, Hoboken's new mayor, Peter
Camerano, resigns from office.

He later admits accepting $25 ,000 in
illegal campaign contributions, and he's

sentenced to 24 months in prison.

The feds never thought that Peter
Camerano was the person who he ended up

A lot of them actually knew him, and
they were absolutely flabbergasted that

was for sale.

74 -year -old Leona Baldini is the first
defendant to be tried.

She's convicted of taking $20 ,000 in
illicit contributions.

She's sentenced to three years in prison
and a $30 ,000 fine.

The judge pointed out that she had any
number of opportunities to say no, to

think twice about it, to do her due
diligence, and at no point did she ever

it.

Kidney broker Levy Itzhak Rosenbaum
pleads guilty to human organ trafficking

charges.

He is sentenced to two and a half years
in prison.

In all, the money launderers wash more
than $3 million for Solomon Dweck.

And Rabbi Mordecai Fish pleads guilty to
laundering nearly $1 million and is

sentenced to 46 months in prison.

The level of corruption among religious
leaders is something that was remarkable

to see. A systematic scheme.

to launder thousands and thousands and
thousands of dollars to have codes and

processes set up and cash counters and
cash couriers and secret channels. It

strikes me that it's a corruption of
leadership.

And we're used to corruption of
leadership among our political leaders,

worse on a lot of levels when you see it
in the religious leadership.

Finally, in October 2009, Solomon Dweck
stands before a federal judge in Newark

and pleads guilty to bank fraud and
money laundering.

He also pleads guilty to state charges
stemming from his Ponzi scheme.

A federal bankruptcy trustee is still
trying to liquidate Dweck's vast

of properties.

Solomon Dweck has agreed of the ego. The
investors have agreed.

of a quick hit, money.

What do the politicians have? They've
got a greed of power.

This is going to put me in a position of
doing deals, being somebody big in my

community.

No matter how you slice the baby,
there's enough greed in this case for

shows. Dweck still hasn't been
sentenced, and when he is, he could

11 years in prison.

But for Dweck, banishment from his own
community may be the greatest punishment

of all.

It's going to be something that he's
going to have to live with his entire

He will get out of jail one day, far
earlier than he would have otherwise,

he's never going to be able to overcome
the scarlet letter he's been branded

with.

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