DEAL, N.J. (RNS) As head of a prominent Monmouth County synagogue, Rabbi Eliahu Ben Haim once led a congregation of hundreds. He is patriarch of a sprawling extended family, with more than 20 grandchildren of his own.
But Thursday (June 17), as he walked into the federal courthouse in Trenton to plead guilty in connection to a massive FBI sting last year, Ben Haim was alone.
Standing before a judge in a dark suit and yarmulke, the 59-year-old rabbi said he used religious charities to launder up to $1.5 million for a government informant who claimed the money came from insurance scams, bank frauds and the sale of knock-off hand bags.
Ben Haim is the first of five rabbis charged with money laundering in last year’s epic sting to plead guilty. Through his deal with prosecutors, Ben Haim faces between four and seven years in prison — the highest range out of any of the 19 defendants who has pleaded guilty in the case so far. Sentencing is sentencing for Sept. 30.
Ben Haim was arrested last July along with scores of others, including three mayors, two lawmakers and one man accused of conspiring to sell a human kidney. They were all ensnared by Solomon Dwek, the son of a Syrian Jewish rabbi and secretly began working for the FBI after being charged in 2006 with a $50-million bank fraud.
Ben Haim grew up in Brooklyn and is the former head of Congregation Ohel Yaacob in the borough of Deal. His father, Baruch Ben Haim, was among the most prominent rabbis in New York City’s Syrian Jewish community.
The money laundering began in 2007 with a $50,000 check that Dwek claimed came from an insurance scam in Florida, according to a criminal complaint. The rabbi said he charged 10 percent for each transaction and worked with a man in Israel who supplied him with money to cash checks. “He washes money for people,” Ben Haim said, according to the complaint.
The rabbi deposited Dwek’s checks into the accounts of his charity organizations, then wired the money overseas. Each time it went different place; each time it was directed to a different name, according to the complaint. Ultimately, the money went to the rabbi’s contact in Israel, who took 1.5 percent and wired the rest to accomplices in New York. They converted it to cash and delivered it Ben Haim and Dwek, authorities said.
“You see the merry-go-round?” Ben Haim told Dwek.
As part of his plea deal, the rabbi agreed to cooperate with the IRS in reviewing his tax returns for the years 2003 and 2008. The rabbi’s lawyer, Lawrence S. Lustberg, said Ben Haim has not agreed to cooperate with authorities to prosecute others in the case.
