NJ scandal: ‘Corruption was a way of life’

More details are emerging from the New Jersey corruption scandal that landed politicians and rabbis in jail yesterday. From today’s NYT:

Illegal sales of body parts. Furtive negotiations in diners, parking lots, and boiler rooms. Nervous jokes about “patting down” a man who turned out to indeed be an informant. And, again and again, piles of cash being passed along — once in a box of Apple Jacks cereal stuffed with $97,000.

In this world of underhanded dealing and illicit promises, corrupt payments were “invitations” and approvals for development projects were “opportunities.”

Those were just some details of a sprawling corruption scandal, stretching from New Jersey to Brooklyn and beyond, that were revealed in court papers Thursday. Forty-four people were arrested, including three New Jersey mayors, two state assemblymen and five rabbis, the authorities said.

The case began with bank fraud charges against a member of an insular Syrian Jewish enclave centered in the seaside town of Deal, N.J., in May 2006. The man, Solomon Dwek, a failed real estate developer and philanthropist, had been arrested on charges of passing a bad $25 million check.

Several people familiar with details of the case said Mr. Dwek became a federal informant and posed as a crooked real estate developer offering cash bribes to obtain government approvals. And so the case mushroomed into a political scandal that could rival any of the most explosive and sleazy episodes in New Jersey’s recent past.

“For these defendants, corruption was a way of life,” said Ralph J. Marra Jr., the acting United States attorney in New Jersey. “They existed in an ethics-free zone.”

Read the rest here. And take a look at the AP photo shown above. Is that a black hat I see in this “ethics-free zone.” Oy. This is definitely not good for the Jews.