A rabbi based in Brooklyn, N.Y., has pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder $200,000 to $400,000 in funds that he believed were the proceeds of unlawful activities, United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Schwartz admitted that beginning in May 2008, he and his brother, Rabbi Mordchai Fish, met with Solomon Dwek, an individual he now knows was a cooperating witness with the United States. For a fee of approximately 10 percent, Fish and Schwartz agreed to launder and conceal Dwek’s funds through a series of purported charities, also known as “gemachs,” which Fish controlled or to which he had access. Schwartz admitted that prior to laundering Dwek’s funds, Dwek informed him that the funds he sought to launder were the proceeds of Dwek’s purported illegal businesses, which included the trafficking in counterfeit goods.
In order to conceal and disguise the nature and source of Dwek’s funds, Rabbi Fish directed Dwek to make the checks payable to several gemachs, which were purportedly dedicated to providing charitable donations to needy individuals. These included Boyoner Gemilas Chesed, Beth Pinchas, CNE and Levovous. Once he received the checks from Dwek, Fish provided them to one of his coconspirators who deposited them into bank accounts held in the names of the purported charities. Fish would then arrange to make cash available through an underground money transfer network, and other individuals, including David S. Golhirsh, Naftoly Weber, Avrohom Y. Polack, Binyamin Spira, Yoely Gertner and others, would provide Fish and Dwek with the cash.
Rabbi Schwartz admitted that he would assist Rabbi Fish and Dwek with counting the cash that had been retrieved from a coconspirator, and admitted to encouraging Dwek to engage in more transactions, believing that the proceeds stemmed from a counterfeit bag business and that Rabbi Fish was retaining a 10 percent fee.
Schwartz admitted that, despite knowing the illicit nature of the funds, he engaged in approximately 10 money laundering transactions with Dwek. As part of these transactions, Fish helped convert between $200,000 and $400,000 in checks into a similar amount of cash, minus the 10 percent fee that Rabbi Fish extracted from the transactions.
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