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favored terms of trade with tile US." There are also other methods. Drug money is deposited in the accounts of diamond merchants as though it were their
profits and is later transferred to Colonibia.
Sophisticated diamond deals are made between various parties with the aiin of "releasing" large amounts of money on the side. Sums of less than $10,000 are
deposited in various bank accounts, converted into travelers' checks and then transported to their final destination.
But in spite of the ingenuity, undoubtedly one of the most popular and
successful ways to launder money is through Jewish religious institutions, such as yeshivas and synagogues. Since the majority of the 47th Street gold and
diamond merchants are religious Jews the process is made easier. The Jewish religious institutions badly need funds. The Colombian drug traders can be
generous. They transfer their drug money as donations, which go to the Jewish religious institutions one way and come out by the other way back to the
donors. On the way, the synagogue or yeshiva obtains a respectable percentage for its pious uses. Everyone is happy, the drug barons who launder their
money quickly and efficiently and the synagogue or yeshiva which makes easy money.
The first laundering operation in which a Jewish institute in New York was involved was exposed in 1984. A ring which laundered about $23 million while
making a profit of $2 million operated at the oldest yeshiva in the city, Tifereth Yerushalayim, located in Manhattan. The laundering was performed for the
Kali cartel. The contact man was David Va'anunu, mentioned in the context of the Prism affair, who worked with the cartel's major launderer, Jose Satro.
The yeshiva's representative was a very pious Hassid, Mendel Goldenberger, who daily received cash from Va'anunu and deposited the money in the
yeshiva's accounts.
Goldenberger, who claimed not to have known the source of the money, was convicted of forging bank documents and given five years' suspended
imprisonment. Va'anunu was convicted, sentenced to eight years' imprisonment but released much earlier after he became an informer for the DEA. Later, as
was stated, he ran into trouble again and fled the US. Nine persons were convicted in that affair, including Rabbi Israel Eidelman, Vice President of the
yeshiva and some of its dignitaries. Tiferet Yer-ushalayim faced financial difficulties at that time. It leaders attempted to maintain the students by paying them
from the laundered drug profits.
The phenomenon, incidentally, is very common among New York Jews. Many Jewish congregations are dying because their members are leaving the city or
their former neighborhoods. Thus, the congregations are losing their sources of income and facing large debts. In that situation the road is short for the
synagogue or yeshiva to launder drug money as a pious duty, since it means easy money and lots of it. "Laundering money is extremely beneficial to the
yeshivas and other Jewish religious institutions," said a source close to the investigation. "They are in a difficult situation and therefore they turn a blind eye to
the drug problem. They don't ask what the source of the money is as long as it keeps coming in."
The attitude of the pious Jewish community, according to the same source, is: "Drugs are sold anyway. As long as it does not harm our own community and
only does good for it, it doesn't matter if we benefit from drug trade." The role of the Israelis is, in many cases, to make the co
Jewish communities of New York and the Colombians.
The Colombians are more satisfied with this method of laundering than with any other because, for political reasons, it is a relatively secure way of which it
could be initially assumed that it was not going to be forcibly investigated by the US authorities. Only in July 1990 the situation began to change.
The Federal authorities renewed an investigation of some Williamsburg Hassids, owners of jewelry shops on 47th Street, who were suspected of laundering
drug money. The investigation focused on the brothers Naftali, Naiklosh and Yitzhak Slilesinger, and on Ya'akov Shlesinger (Naftali's son) and Milon
Jakloby, his nephew. The investigators found evidence of close co
family accused of laundering, almost one billion dollars. The Shlesingers were suspected of laundering money by means of a subsidiary called Bali, through
checks drawn from the account of "Camp Yereim" ["Camp of the Pious]" a Hassidic summer camp in the Catskills.
Camp Yereim denies any co
in Los Angeles was convicted of conspiring to launder drug money. Lau is married to the niece of the Satmar Rebbe, Moshe Teitlebaumi, who wields
enormous political influence in New York State.
Unfortunately, Lau told an undercover FBI agent about a "sacred network" of Satmar Hassids in which other Orthodox Jews had also participated. The
"sacred network", whose membership was strictly limited to pious Jews, operated in the 47th Street area in New York and was capable of laundering up to
$5 million weekly, thanks to its widespread contacts with Jewish charitable institutions.
Unfortunately, law enforcement agents in New York do not believe that the "sacred network" and the many other Jewish laundering rings have any sanctity.
In the past year the Federal activity concerning Israelis and Jews on 47th Street has greatly increased. The investigators now employ the services of many
Hebrew translators since the rings, even if composed of native American Jews, employ only "the sacred language" for their operations.
Aharon Sharir is, undoubtedly, the major Israeli launderer. He was born in Iraq about 45 years ago, immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of one
year, graduated from an Israeli high school, served with distinction in the army and became an expert in fixing delicate mechanical instruments used to mend
gold jewelry. In 1979, Sharir came to New York on a tourist visa with $6,000 in his pocket. He went into the gold business, established a small plant for
manufacturing gold jewelry and did well. Then, through another Israeli diamond trader, he discovered the laundering business. Sharir reached a laundering
activity of about $160,000 per day, six days per week (laundering is not done on the Sabbath), but in 1985 his wings were clipped when he was accused of
having swindled a New York bank to the tune of $3 million. He quickly returned the money and was sentenced to a fine and a suspended prison sentence.
In 1988 Sharir's laundering activities reached amazing heights. His gold shop on 47tll Street became one of the greatest laundering centers in the entire US.
"Three times a week," Sharir told the court at one of the many trials in which he is now testifying, "we received the cash. It used to arrive in canvas sacks, in
cardboard boxes or in suitcases. Sometimes there were a million dollars in one shipment."
Roy Lopez, representing the Colombian cartels, would arrive from Miami equipped with a document sent from Colombia which contained detailed coded
instructions about where to send the money. "Even with automatic money-counting machines it was difficult to count the money," Sharir testified. "It arrived in
bills of 5, 10 and 20 dollars. The bills, most of which had been used to sniff cocaine, had a strong odor of coke. A real stink. My employees could not stand
it. Every 2-3 hours they had to take a break, go out for some fresh air, so as not to get ill."