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Solomon Dwek
Federal marshals in Newark took Dwek into custody this afternoon after U.S. District Judge Jose Linares blasted him for violating his agreement with the government — calling Dwek an “extremely accomplished liar” — by trying to keep the FBI from learning of his arrest in Baltimore last month.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office also removed Dwek from its witness list in Elwell’s trial.
Dwek was awaiting sentencing in a $50 million bank fraud case from the Jersey Shore when he agreed to pose as a crooked developer in “Operation Bid Rig II,” an FBI sting that netted several North Jersey mayors and other officials, as well as a group of money-laundering rabbis from Deal and Brooklyn.
All told, agents seized nearly four dozen people, several of whom have either pleaded guilty or were convicted. Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez was acquitted.
Federal authorities waited for a bail hearing today to reveal details of Dwek’s arrest on an outstanding warrant for renting a car using his father’s credit card (Bad blood between the Dweks was made public soon after the sweep).
Dwek had been under house arrest since pleading guilty in the bank fraud case. He was looking at nine to 12 years in federal prison for his cooperation after pleading guilty to fraud and other charges in September 2009.
What Dwek’s current situation does to the agreement — and the length of the sentence Linares eventually gives him — hasn’t been fully answered yet.
Government agents arrested Dwek five years ago, after he deposited a bad check for $25.2 million at a drive-through bank window at the Shore and PNC bank accused him of swindling $50 million.
Complaints mounted from people who said he had conned them out of enormous sums of money, as well. Even his uncle filed a claim against Dwek, whose parents founded the Deal Yeshiva, a Jersey Shore religious school that teaches Sephardic Jewish children.
With his options for avoiding serious prison time shrinking, Dwek struck a deal with the feds to participate in a sting that made “Abscam” look like a panty raid.
CLIFFVIEWPILOT.COM was the first to identify Dwek as the government operative in the case (SEE: Meet the cooperator behind N.J.’s biggest corruption bust ever)
Posing as a law-breaking contractor, Dwek paid bribes to several North Jersey mayors and public officials while wearing a wire. He also participated in the investigation of an international ring involving Sephardic rabbis who laundered millions of dollars through charitable, non-profit groups.
The government charged Dwek with bank fraud on May 11, 2006 and that was the last anyone heard of him — until agents made a series of arrests on and around July 23.
Because Dwek was an unknown in this area, he was a natural for the sting. For instance, neither Peter Cammarano, then the Hoboken mayor for all of three weeks, nor Michael Schffer, a North Hudson Utilities Authority commissioner, knew who he was during a series of meetings at the Malibu Diner. Each time, Dwek gave Schaffer envelopes stuffed with cash from his car trunk, the FBI says (SEE: For upstart mayor, it all began at the Malibu Diner).
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