Now, Live From New York….

The latest big federal sting does not have anyone laughing: or for that matter, the dozens of arrests have very few people reporting. 

 

 

For those who may have forgotten: here’s where New Jersey was, before more than forty leaders were arrested in series of high-level corruption probes. The probe itself was sharpened to two prongs. First, a money laundering schema, aimed at the Syrian enclave, with banking ties linking the Jersey Shore/Switzerland/Israel.

 

Solomon Dwek, a prominent New Jersey financier, has given almost $200,000 to politicians and leaders, from Rabbi to assemblymen, since the late 1990s. Dwek became a stooge for federal investigators in 2006. In that year, Dwek was convicted on a federal bank fraud charge, and the government investigators became convinced they had been given an opportunity for opening criminal investigations on a wide front. On first impression, the investigators could have either considered Zwek to be lunatic or loose cannon. Zwek, after all, had been arrest by an unsuccessful attempt to pass a $25,000,000 check at a Monmouth bank’s drive-through teller.

 

Obviously, Zwek was a criminal provocateur par excellent. When the widely case net was unfurled, the dozens of catches included at least three New Jersey mayors, two state assemblymen, and five rabbis. Dwek himself is the son of a rabbi.  The bulk of the corruption centered in Hudson County.

 

There seems to be a mathematical anomaly in the gifts and graft. While virtually all of the suspects are Democrats, this was the reverse of Zwek’s giving: The strange bedfellows syndrome runs deeply, even as politicians of both parties rush to return or donate the equivalent of Zwek’s donations. While Zwek favored Republicans on the state level, and Democrats on the federal level, the corruption has seemed to be largely Democratic in orientation.

 

Of course, the oddity of Governor John Corzine’s observation (Corzine was not listed as a recipient of Zwek’s interest) has not received adequate political attention: “Any corruption is unacceptable -- anywhere, anytime, by anybody. The scale of corruption we're seeing as this unfolds is simply outrageous and cannot be tolerated.” A member of Corzine’s cabinet—although not charged—resigned after it was reported the cabinet member’s home had been raided by federal investigators. Corzine, although never charged with a crime, received severe criticism for loaning a romantic interest undisclosed hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now that is funny.