Alleged Haredi Organ Trafficker Scammed Money From Madoff

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum ran the Brooklyn branch of Kav Lachayim.

ORGAN-SELLING' RABBI'S $$ LINK TO MADOFF
By JAMES FANELLI

The alleged organ-selling rabbi busted as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe headed a Brooklyn charity that received dirty donations from yet another disgrace -- Bernard Madoff.

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 58, ran the Brooklyn branch of Kav Lachayim, a volunteer group that purports to help sickly children.

Before Madoff was busted as one of the biggest scammers in history, his $19 million family foundation donated tens of thousands of dollars over several years to the charitable group, records show.

Rosenbaum was arrested last week as part of a massive FBI sting after allegedly being caught on tape offering to sell a kidney for $160,000.

"I am what you call a matchmaker," Rosenbaum told an FBI informant trying to broker a deal.

Rosenbaum said he had brokered "quite a lot" of illegal organ deals, according to a criminal complaint.

The charity's sister organization in Israel also has ties to the selling of organs. That group was partially run by a retired banker, Yechiel Landman, who a year ago helped sick Israelis find organ donors in the Philippines, according to reports.

Comments

[Fressenburger]

Can anyone tell me how I can resign from being Jewish - I just cant take this crap any more. Madoff, Gaza, Engel and now organ trafficking - I want out of this club please.
I wrote to a Beth Din and they told me that I cant resign, which seems to me to be in contravention of some UN charter on choice of religion.
The Beth Din were adamant that they will allow converts in but they won't officially sanction a person to get out and that they simply view the person as living in sin and they await repentance and return to the fold. It says so in the Talmud somewhere.
Looks like a way to keep the numbers up.
Anyway I want out and I want it official. Serious suggestions please.

[ah-pee-chorus]

tell them your grandmother was adopted and never converted. lol

[ah-pee-chorus]

i hear bernie is REALLY pissed .

[critical_minyan]

ah-pee-chorus,
I tell them my grandmother's mother converted but she wore pants one time after she converted so that the whole conversion is revoked retroactively.

[Fressenburger]

"tell them your grandmother was adopted and never converted. lol"
Why is it that whenever I bring this subject up with anyone, they always laugh?
Like the man said on TV, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more.
You see, apc, until you resign, they have your soul in their grasp and every time some f'ing nudnick like Madoff or Sharon steals or murders, we all end up carrying the guilt the shame and the blame, and I for one have had taking the crap for other people's greed and cruelty.
Again, serious suggestions on resigning. Anyone else who wants to join me is welcome, in fact if people started to leave and do it properly rather than just sit in Dharamsala and pretend, then perhaps THEY might sit up and get worried.

[steve]

Madoff's trustee should be suing Rosenbaum. That money belong's to Madoff's victims.

[moshe]

This guy tried to opt out, but looks like no matter how far he runs, he cannot escape.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534727,00.html

Hoffman was born in Joplin, Missouri,[1][2] to Jewish-Romanian parents in 1934.[12] As a child he moved with his family to Montana, where he was briefly employed as a delivery boy forHelena's Independent Record newspaper.[13]

first madoff, then launderer rabbis, and then crazy converts with sex. what next?

[Reader]

Fressenburger,
just lie and tell everyone you are not Jewish. Anyway, like most American Jews you cannot "prove" your Jewishness (there is no official document to attest to that).
If you think that non-Jews (religious or not) do not commit crimes or are good at resisting temptation you must be very naive to say the least.

[Hometown Postville]

What goes around comes around...

[alternative childcare]

Fressenberger: you can simply marry a German, and pretend to be a Nazi. Then when you get old and nostalgic, you can come back here and post all sorts of nasty comments about Jews and feel at home.

[Fressenburger]

Reader: Who said I am American - I'm not.
And when Jews commit crimes, its the rest of Jewry that take the blame. When non-Jews commit crime its a different story.
And no altchildcare, I dont feel the need to marry a German or become a nazi - but thanks for the suggestion.

[Dorian]

Dear Fressenburger,

After over 2000 years the rabbi's didn't even figger out yet what is the right defenition of a Jew. Nevertheless , they think they do and therefore they sent people like Spinoza & Co.. into a cherem. Théy got what you are looking for..they got fired!
Eventhough..most (if not all) never said they stopped being a Jew. After all, You can take the man out of Judaism, but you can’t take the Judaism out of the man. Elisha Ben Abuya’s knowledge (a famous apikoros ,although not put in a cherem) , didn’t vanish with his 'heresy'.
This wasn’t a crisis of faith; he simply came to the realisation that his religious observance could no longer be intellectually justified.
The problem is not with us, it is with the product. The reason people do not practice Judaism is not because they are lacking integrity; it is because they are not convinced by it. Elisha Ben-Abuya’s integrity was sound. Today, the challenge is not to make the Elisha Ben Abuyas of this world return to orthopraxis, but to ask how to form a community that will sustain them in their exile from the tradition.

You are what you are regardless of what others' actions are. I can't resign of being a woman when I see how other women deal with their feminism and drag us all down etc...
Like my mother recently stated after trying another diet.."I was born a Mercedes...I'm never gonna be a FiatPanda!"
Just keep on laughing.. After all...whatever the Madoffs & Thugs in this world do..Jews get blamed anyway. Even when there are no Jews there still will be antisemitism.

PS: Now it's time to get yourself loaded..I suggest a bottle of scotch. hang in there! Good Luck.

[nobody]

"Madoff, Gaza, Engel and now organ trafficking - I want out of this club please."

If you are ashamed about the Gaza war (or more accurately IDF operation there), you have serious mental problems. I wouldn't want you as part of any Jewish grouping if you think proper morality is to side with Hamas in gaza. Unfortunately for both of us, you are stuck.

[ah-pee-chorus]

there are a lot of things in judaism which trouble me. but the IDF is something i am very proud of. their actions overall are more moral than any other army, especially one fighting an enemy which has no rules. kol hakavod as always, IDF.

[ah-pee-chorus]

critical_minyan : well then i guess i cant allow my kids to marry yours.

[Dorian]

...their actions overall are more moral than any other army, especially one fighting an enemy which has no rules....

Well,... I was less charmed by them when they dragged me of the roof in Kush Katif. Other than that.. I stand fully behind the IDF in defending Israël, like in Gaza.

[harold]

Can anyone tell me how I can resign from being Jewish

Convert to Christianity. Then you can eat yourself up with the scandels with the church. Enjoy.

[MalachHamovies]

Hi,

Is the the Rosenbaum Cafe ??

Do you still have the breakfast special for $150,000 ?

That would be 2 kidneys, 1 sesame bagel with butter, 2 sunny side up eggs, hash browns and 2 cups of coffee.

[ML]

It was just kidneyot!

buh-dum ching.

[Alan]

Are you on Twitter?

[Shmarya]

Why?

[Mr. Apikoros]

I don't have a problem with people selling kidneys per se, as the average wait on the list for a "free" kidney is six years, and about 25% of people die while waiting for a transplant. The problem, of course, is there aren't enough donors. Very few people would give up a kidney, and lose a months' work in the process, not to mention the pain and suffering involved, for free.

What was extremely wrong in this case was the conduct of "Rabbi" Levy-Ishak Rosenbaum, who gave $10,000 to the donor while pocketing $160,000 for himself. This is what happens when what should be a legitimate business is relegated to criminals.

There should be an exchange for kidneys, and the donors should be compensated by insurance companies, along with other medical expenses involved. Apparently the going price to the donor is about $10,000, and I am guessing the costs of the two transplants would be around $100,000. Transplant surgery costs are covered by insurance now, as is dialysis.

I'm sure that prompt transplanting of kidneys would save many lives and also save money, as dialysis is extremely expensive.

[Umanna]

From the indictment, it does not appear that Rosenbaum committed a crime.

Below is 42 U.S.C. § 274e, the law that Rosenbaum is accused of violating. The statute allows compensation to the donor for “expenses of travel, housing, and lost wages incurred by the donor of a human organ in connection with the donation of the organ.” 42 U.S.C.A. § 274e(c)(2).

Rosenbaum in paragraph 7 of the indictment correctly states, “Let me explain to you one thing. It's illegal to buy or sell organs. . . . So you cannot buy it. What you do is, you're giving a compensation for the time . . . whatever–-he's not working. . . .” It appears that the buyer is not paying Rosenbaum for the kidney, but for the service of locating a willing donor.

To the extent that Rosenbaum is paying the donor, it would be a crime only if the dollar amount exceeds the donor’s “lost wages.” 42 U.S.C.A. § 274e(c)(2). But since Rosenbaum never indicates how much the donor would get paid, there is no way to prove that he committed a crime.

§ 274e. Prohibition of organ purchases

(a) Prohibition

It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation if the transfer affects interstate commerce. The preceding sentence does not apply with respect to human organ paired donation.

(b) Penalties

Any person who violates subsection (a) of this section shall be fined not more than $50,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(c) Definitions

For purposes of subsection (a) of this section:

(1) The term “human organ” means the human (including fetal) kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, bone marrow, cornea, eye, bone, and skin or any subpart thereof and any other human organ (or any subpart thereof, including that derived from a fetus) specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services by regulation.

(2) The term “valuable consideration” does not include the reasonable payments associated with the removal, transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, and storage of a human organ or the expenses of travel, housing, and lost wages incurred by the donor of a human organ in connection with the donation of the organ.

(3) The term “interstate commerce” has the meaning prescribed for it by section 321(b) of Title 21.

[Shmarya]

It doesn't appear that you understand what Rosenbaum did or what he is.

[Shmarya]

You might also read up on who his donors are and what he allegedly did to coerce some of them:

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2009/07/haredi-rabbi-allegedly-tricked-and-extorted-organ-sellers-678.html