A continuation...
After leaving the pastor, Mariz's father, I made my way back to Mariz's home for that little heart to heart talk. As soon as I sat down she tore into me, accusing me essentially of running a "Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am" scam on her. I reminded her that I had never asked her to leave her home in the middle of the night and that it hadn't taken too much convincing to get her into bed. I then explained that I was returning to New York to follow up on my healthcare concerns. Pursuing her Masters in Surgical Nursing and with her elder sister MJ- my mate's girlfriend- working as an RN Mariz is very well aware of the shoddy doctors and hospitals in the Philippines.
It is true that I did have to finish taking care of my healthcare issues but that wasn't my main reason for flying to the States. Longtime readers may recall me talking about my first cousin Shlomo "Solomon" Dwek. Arrested in 2009 for kiting two checks totalling $56 Million in New Jersey, he went over to the "dark side," serving as an FBI informant to uncover the connection between Italian organised crime and New Jersey politicians.
Having made his fortune in real estate and development Shlomo had been running a Pyramid Scheme that defrauded investors of nearly $400 Million. Unfortunately, most of that debt was to other Syrian Jewish clans. Our community is incredibly tight knit, much more so than even other Jewish groups. Our clans form "Hamula," or "Clan Associations" which provide a decent income to all vested members via interest from real estate, business investments and so on. Business is conducted via word of honour and so Shlomo was able to run up quite a steep tab. Most reprehensibly of all, he robbed my father of nearly $64 Million. When things began falling apart he panicked and deposited a check for $25 Million at a bank in Eatontown and then almost immediately wired out the balance to offshore accounts. Then, 2 days later, he did the same with a check for $31 Million at a bank in Asbury Park, on the Jersey Shore.
The scheme was borderline retarded since he did so in person, at the branches, in long standing accounts- as if he wanted to be caught...and caught he was. Wired up by the FBI under the alias David Ensbach he then went about filing huge development plans in various towns and cities throughout North Jersey. By the time it was over 46 men had been arrested including 3 mayors from the towns of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield and the Vice Mayor of Jersey City. Known as "Operation Bid Rig II" it also, in a move that bespeaks the greed of Federal Prosecutors, targetted rabbis in our community. Shlomo would approach these rabbis, all elderly, and explain that he wanted to launder some proceeds of a grey market real estate transaction.
In Jewish Law we are bound to the laws of the land we live in UNLESS they conflict with Jewish Law. Money Laundering is not a crime in Jewish Law. Because both Shlomo's father Yitzchak (Isaac), and my father Yosef (Josepf) are reknowned rabbis he was pretty much given carte blanche to launder the money, resulting in several rabbis being among the 46 people arrested. Longtime readers may also recall that this whole sordid affair generated a thread in CE and P Forum about one of the arrestees, a man in Brooklyn who makes his living brokering organ transplants. Say one badly needs a kidney transplant and cannot or will not wait on the requisite list for the needed organ. Paying up to $200,000 to this man you can have the organ in your body within 2 weeks. While I personally find it very distasteful I do not think he was breaking any American Laws, he certainly wasn't breaking Jewish Law.
When news of his arrest broke the community and my family were in absolute shock...and disgraced beyond all imagining. After quickly working out a restitution plan to effected Syrian clans, his father took to the pulpit and not only denounced Shlomo's actions, he declared him a "Rodef." The word doesn't translate into English but denotes a Jew who denounces or entraps other Jews at the behest of non-Jewish authorities. Such actions are considered worse than murder to us. Finally, his father declared him dead and he was ritually mourned and is forever persona non grata- not to mention having a target on his forehead.
Syrian Jews aren't the only people trying to kill Shlomo. One of the companies targetted and netted was 4 Star Development, a La Cosa Nostra-controlled enterprise under the DeCalvacante Mafia Family. While the 5 New York Families:
1) Gambino
2) Lucchese
3) Colombo
4) Bonnano
5) Genovese
are much better known, the Northern New Jersey Family, the DeCalvacantes, are just as entrenched. Based in Elizabeth and serving as the model for HBO's former hit "The Sopranos," the DeCalvacantes make their bread and butter in construction and real estate. Strangely, Shlomo and his FBI handlers never went after Jewish organised crime, which probably would have been a much easier endeavour.
Released on $10 Million bail after the operation closed, Shlomo, his wife and 5 children were taken into the bosom of the FBI and secreted in a surburban Maryland community. Always his own worst enemy Shlomo couldn't leave well enough alone and inexplicably "forgot" to return a rental car earning him a charge of Auto Theft. Bail revoked, he spent the next 15 months in Manhattan's MCC, or Metropolitan Corretional Center, the Federal lockup for Eastern District New York.
I was to fly to New York to take part in some clan business regarding Shlomo's sentencing in early October. Facing 30 years he walked away with 6 years Federal and 4 years New Jersey running concurrent. In simpler terms, he will serve 48 months. At sentencing the Federal Prosecutor tried to whittle that paltry sentence down even further but ran up against a judge who was livid over Shlomo's rental car fiasco.
So, Mariz agreeing that it was best that I resolve my outstanding health issues and ecstatic that I had "agreed" to convert spent a rather pleasant day with me (and even more pleasant night in the guesthouse). After breakfast the next morning she said her tearful goodbyes and I left for Makati. Getting my stuff together I flew out that night via Tapei in Taiwan and arrived in a cooler, more seasonable New York.
After leaving the pastor, Mariz's father, I made my way back to Mariz's home for that little heart to heart talk. As soon as I sat down she tore into me, accusing me essentially of running a "Wham, Bam, Thank You Ma'am" scam on her. I reminded her that I had never asked her to leave her home in the middle of the night and that it hadn't taken too much convincing to get her into bed. I then explained that I was returning to New York to follow up on my healthcare concerns. Pursuing her Masters in Surgical Nursing and with her elder sister MJ- my mate's girlfriend- working as an RN Mariz is very well aware of the shoddy doctors and hospitals in the Philippines.
It is true that I did have to finish taking care of my healthcare issues but that wasn't my main reason for flying to the States. Longtime readers may recall me talking about my first cousin Shlomo "Solomon" Dwek. Arrested in 2009 for kiting two checks totalling $56 Million in New Jersey, he went over to the "dark side," serving as an FBI informant to uncover the connection between Italian organised crime and New Jersey politicians.
Having made his fortune in real estate and development Shlomo had been running a Pyramid Scheme that defrauded investors of nearly $400 Million. Unfortunately, most of that debt was to other Syrian Jewish clans. Our community is incredibly tight knit, much more so than even other Jewish groups. Our clans form "Hamula," or "Clan Associations" which provide a decent income to all vested members via interest from real estate, business investments and so on. Business is conducted via word of honour and so Shlomo was able to run up quite a steep tab. Most reprehensibly of all, he robbed my father of nearly $64 Million. When things began falling apart he panicked and deposited a check for $25 Million at a bank in Eatontown and then almost immediately wired out the balance to offshore accounts. Then, 2 days later, he did the same with a check for $31 Million at a bank in Asbury Park, on the Jersey Shore.
The scheme was borderline retarded since he did so in person, at the branches, in long standing accounts- as if he wanted to be caught...and caught he was. Wired up by the FBI under the alias David Ensbach he then went about filing huge development plans in various towns and cities throughout North Jersey. By the time it was over 46 men had been arrested including 3 mayors from the towns of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield and the Vice Mayor of Jersey City. Known as "Operation Bid Rig II" it also, in a move that bespeaks the greed of Federal Prosecutors, targetted rabbis in our community. Shlomo would approach these rabbis, all elderly, and explain that he wanted to launder some proceeds of a grey market real estate transaction.
In Jewish Law we are bound to the laws of the land we live in UNLESS they conflict with Jewish Law. Money Laundering is not a crime in Jewish Law. Because both Shlomo's father Yitzchak (Isaac), and my father Yosef (Josepf) are reknowned rabbis he was pretty much given carte blanche to launder the money, resulting in several rabbis being among the 46 people arrested. Longtime readers may also recall that this whole sordid affair generated a thread in CE and P Forum about one of the arrestees, a man in Brooklyn who makes his living brokering organ transplants. Say one badly needs a kidney transplant and cannot or will not wait on the requisite list for the needed organ. Paying up to $200,000 to this man you can have the organ in your body within 2 weeks. While I personally find it very distasteful I do not think he was breaking any American Laws, he certainly wasn't breaking Jewish Law.
When news of his arrest broke the community and my family were in absolute shock...and disgraced beyond all imagining. After quickly working out a restitution plan to effected Syrian clans, his father took to the pulpit and not only denounced Shlomo's actions, he declared him a "Rodef." The word doesn't translate into English but denotes a Jew who denounces or entraps other Jews at the behest of non-Jewish authorities. Such actions are considered worse than murder to us. Finally, his father declared him dead and he was ritually mourned and is forever persona non grata- not to mention having a target on his forehead.
Syrian Jews aren't the only people trying to kill Shlomo. One of the companies targetted and netted was 4 Star Development, a La Cosa Nostra-controlled enterprise under the DeCalvacante Mafia Family. While the 5 New York Families:
1) Gambino
2) Lucchese
3) Colombo
4) Bonnano
5) Genovese
are much better known, the Northern New Jersey Family, the DeCalvacantes, are just as entrenched. Based in Elizabeth and serving as the model for HBO's former hit "The Sopranos," the DeCalvacantes make their bread and butter in construction and real estate. Strangely, Shlomo and his FBI handlers never went after Jewish organised crime, which probably would have been a much easier endeavour.
Released on $10 Million bail after the operation closed, Shlomo, his wife and 5 children were taken into the bosom of the FBI and secreted in a surburban Maryland community. Always his own worst enemy Shlomo couldn't leave well enough alone and inexplicably "forgot" to return a rental car earning him a charge of Auto Theft. Bail revoked, he spent the next 15 months in Manhattan's MCC, or Metropolitan Corretional Center, the Federal lockup for Eastern District New York.
I was to fly to New York to take part in some clan business regarding Shlomo's sentencing in early October. Facing 30 years he walked away with 6 years Federal and 4 years New Jersey running concurrent. In simpler terms, he will serve 48 months. At sentencing the Federal Prosecutor tried to whittle that paltry sentence down even further but ran up against a judge who was livid over Shlomo's rental car fiasco.
So, Mariz agreeing that it was best that I resolve my outstanding health issues and ecstatic that I had "agreed" to convert spent a rather pleasant day with me (and even more pleasant night in the guesthouse). After breakfast the next morning she said her tearful goodbyes and I left for Makati. Getting my stuff together I flew out that night via Tapei in Taiwan and arrived in a cooler, more seasonable New York.
