Rabbis charged with illegally laundering $3M

[FarCenter]

The U.S. Attorney said today that it has uncovered a massive money-laundering scheme that involved high-ranking religious figures and their associates in Brooklyn, N.Y. and Deal, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Among those arrested was Eliahu Ben Haim, of Long Branch, principal rabbi of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in Deal. According to court documents, 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 aim and his synagogue.


To complete the money-laundering cycle, Haim would return the payment of the
check in cash to an FBI cooperating witness. Normally Haim would keep 10 percent of the money, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Haim's source of cash for funding the money laundering was, according to court
documents, 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 -- also
charged today -- 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 court
documents.

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