The Jersey Sting: A True Story of Crooked Pols, Money-Laundering Rabbis, Black Market Kidneys, and the Informant Who Brought It All Down [Hardcover]

Ted Sherman (Author), Josh Margolin (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 15, 2011

In the summer of 2009 the blog Gawker stated “Everybody in New Jersey Was Arrested Yesterday.” Now for the first time, the real story behind the biggest corruption bust in New Jersey’s notoriously corrupt history

Among the forty-four people arrested in July 2009 were three mayors, five Orthodox rabbis, two state legislators, and the flamboyant deputy mayor of Jersey City, Leona Beldini, once a stripper using the stage name “Hope Diamond.” At the center of it all was a dubious character named Solomon Dwek, who perpetrated a $50 million Ponzi scheme before copping a plea and wearing a wire as a secret FBI undercover informant, setting up friends, partners, rabbis, and dozens of politicians. Mr. Dwek played his role like an extra in a mob movie. On surveillance tape, he repeatedly referred to his fraudulent “schnookie deals,” which is Yiddish for, well, schnook.

Full of impossible-to-make-up detail and fresh revelations from the continuing trials and investigations, this book—the inside, untold account of a federal sting operation that moves from the streets of Brooklyn to the diners of Jersey City, and all the way to Israel—is a wonderful tour de force of investigative journalism by the reporting team that broke this amazing story.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When Solomon Dwek bounced multimillion-dollar checks in 2006, his real-estate Ponzi scheme collapsed, and he was facing decades in the slammer. To mitigate his punishment, he agreed to wear an FBI microphone and camera that recorded the eager acceptance by rabbis in Brooklyn and public officials and political fixers in New Jersey of cash he handed out by the thousands. After this case sensationally broke in 2009 with dozens of arrests, Sherman and Margolin reported the story for the Newark Star-Ledger, and here they narrate Dwek�s undercover dramatics. A natural as well as voluble liar, Dwek exuded faux generosity, ensnaring Jewish charities that cheated Uncle Sam of taxes by laundering fake donations. If such perversion of philanthropy was shocking when revealed, bribery in the Garden State merely confirmed public expectations. Still, Dwek�s dialogues with the easily bought make for bizarrely entertaining reading that connoisseurs of corruption will savor. Including political ramifications��the sting�s authorizer, Chris Christie, won the New Jersey governor�s election in 2009��Sherman and Margolin grittily show white-collar crime caught as it was being committed. --Gilbert Taylor

Review

"Two very good reporters at The Star-Ledger have done this state — and the whole country, for that matter — a great service...Juicy... a masterful job." --The Newark Star-Ledger

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (March 15, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312654170
• ISBN-13: 978-0312654177
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating story embedded in boring book July 23, 2011

By Doctor.Generosity TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The fascinating part of the story is a circle of corruption whose focal point was a member of the Syrian Orthodox Jewish community in New Jersey, working with the FBI in order to lighten his own sentence for bank fraud. It is a sad story how even prominent rabbis were engaged in money laundering, illegal organ smuggling, and more. Guess they missed the day at yeshiva when the Eighth Commandment was discussed. Solomon Drek gets the award for pathological sleazeball of the century. He clearly relished all the cloak-and-dagger of entrapping all his supposed friends and counterparties. Recently he was re-arrested for a minor crime related to a rental car, causing him to return to prison, wasting all his hard work as a rat. Nobody likes Solomon Drek.

And these are supposedly observant religious people. Same can be said of Catholic priests. What can we say of those who profess to live a life in accord with divine law yet commit crimes of greed and perversion? Someday I would like to see each and every one of the world religions and sub divisions, spiritual movements, sects and belief systems - get a report card based on how its adherents actually behave, using some objective criteria such as criminal conviction records. Would be an interesting statistic and say something about walking the talk.

The less interesting part of this book is a minutely detailed catalog of every small time crooked politician in New Jersey. The authors are newspaper reporters and here they have simply dumped out all the data they know about each and every pol. All of it. For anyone not equally obsessed, there is way too much exhaustive detail. There is no discussion of why NJ came to have such a culture of corruption. There is no discussion of the Syrian Jewish community. There is no discussion, period. All trees, no forest. And whereas the key event is the arrest of 44 people on one day, it takes 292 pages of a 386 page book to get to that event. Don't books have editors anymore?

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent writing, rich detail, and an unbelievable story = great read March 18, 2011

By AvidNonFictionReader

Format:Hardcover

Sherman and Margolin are established and well respected investigative journalists who demonstrate in this book that they aren't just reporters, they're writers. They clearly put their considerable skills to use assimilating all the facts, reviewing the tapes and records, conducting interviews and translating all of that into a story that is rich in detail and truly hard to put down. They take us behind the scenes and into the heads of the perpetrators, victims, investigators and prosecutors to connect the dots and develop character portraits that makes it easy for readers to "visualize" the story as if it were a movie. This story is truly one from the "truth is stranger, and more unbelievable, than fiction" files. A great read. Let's hope they're not done.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't Put it Down March 28, 2011

By Joseph

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Once I began reading this book it was difficult to put it down. If you're a Jersey native and politically involved on any level this is a must read. From the major political players to the building inspectors, Jersey's political characters and their shenanigans make this book a lively and at times comedic read.