Solomon Dwek Owned Gambling Boat Used For Prostitution

Solomon Dwek cross-examined.

Solomon Dwek grilled on the Ten Commandments in Beldini corruption trial
By Michaelangelo Conte • The Jersey Journal / The Associated Press

Just how many commandments has Solomon Dwek broken?

As cross-examination of the government's key witness, Solomon Dwek, began this morning in the corruption trial of Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy's campaign treasurer, the defense has been grilling Dwek on his failure to abide by civil law and the Ten Commandments.

"Up until I started my cooperation (with the FBI) I would operate -- I would lie, I would steal, I would cheat," Dwek said as defense attorney Brian Neary worked to tear down Dwek's credibility. "I would do whatever i thought was necessary to further my real estate business."

Dwek was quick to say he had changed his ways, adding, "Once I decided to cooperate, and I signed a cooperating agreement, I did not lie, cheat, steal. I obeyed."

Neary forced Dwek to admit that his criminal activity -- which included swindling friends, family and members of his Jewish community of Deal -- had dishonored his father, a rabbi. Dwek also admitted to owning a gambling boat in Florida that was apparently used for prostitution and suggested he helped others covet their neighbors' wives in so doing.

Neary harped on the symbolism of the yarmulke Dwek wore and even suggested that his father had already sat shiva for Dwek, having decided he was dead to him.

Nearry then began running through the schedule of meetings between Dwek, defendant Leona Beldini, former Jersey City housing official/school board member Edward Cheatam, the late political Jack Shaw and Healy in Jersey City and Staten Island and tallying up the payments Dwek gave Cheatam -- who has pleaded guilty -- and Shaw -- who died days after his July arrest.

Neary was careful to note that at one meeting Cheatam told Dwek that Beldini does not take cash. Dwek says on the tape that he could instead give a check.

Asked if he ever represnted himself as a rabbi, Dwek said, "No.''

Neary noted that Beldini said "Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal'' on the tapes. Dwek acknowledged she had said it, said she was referring to Healy and admitted that it is not the way he has operated in his life until the plea deal.

Since 2006, Dwek has had the opportunity to testify under oath on number of occasions, usually connected to his bankruptcy proceedings.

Neary then asked about the people and banks Dwek stole millions of dollars from. 

The banks represent people trying to save their hard-earned money, Neary said.

He also noted that starting when he was in bankruptcy, Dwek received $12,800 a month and  now gets $10,000 a month, which he, his wife and their five children live on.

"That is from the money you have stolen?'' Neary asked.

"Yes.''

"So you still enjoy the ill-gotten gains on a monthly basis, yes?''

"Yes."

"I notice you wear a religious cap. What does that symbolize?''

"The way I was brought up was in a religious orthodox home. It’s the way my parents brought me up. It’s one of the 613 commandments of the bible."

Neary later asked Dwek if he continued to lie once he became a cooperating witness for the federal government.

"Was your word always gold to them?'' he asked of FBI agents. 

"... I never lied to them.''

[Hat Tip: CS.]

Comments

[Bill]

"[The yarmulkeh] (religious skullcap) is one of the 613 commandments of the Bible."

Wrong.

That's an untruth under oath right there!

[The Real Joe]

This animal sickens me I hope he does have an official Mental illness because doing these kind of stuff with a normal working brain is even more scary

[Yerachmiel Lopin]

But it is an important minhag for FBAs (Frum By Appearance) since it conveys they always are aware of G-d's presence.

[Alex]

Running the boat is the new "making it". I like Dwek more and more. He must have been one cool dude to hang out with.

[R]

i don't re-call G-d commanding Moses to wear a skull cap. I must have missed that bit.
But i guess it's alright to not keep even the basic Ten commandments, but to keep up appearances he keeps a 614th commandment.

Maybe the problem with the orthodox world is that no one knows what is real and what has been added.

[steve]

THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE RIVERBOAT BROTHEL:

Dwek's company owned a floating casino 1,100 miles south on a boat called the Excalibur.

The casino took wagers on roulette, slot machines and blackjack. It was all legal — whenever the 116-foot boat steamed nine miles into international waters from its Florida Gulf Coast port.

Dwek's company had agreed to pay $2.5 million for the boat, but the gambling venture foundered. After 11 months, in 1999, the company defaulted on its loan.

Dwek's bankrupt company then sold the vessel to an operator who transformed it into a floating strip club. The price for a stateroom on the ship? $300 an hour.

Today, Dwek owes $1.1 million to the boat's builder.

The failed gambling venture seems incongruous for a man once seen by his Sephardic Jewish community as a respected investor. Dwek also was vice president of the Deal Yeshiva, which operates Jewish schools in West Long Branch and Ocean Township.

The floating casino is just one in a series of deals that many say was more than bad luck on Dwek's part.

In court papers, former business associates — even an uncle — say the 33-year-old Ocean Township resident perpetrated frauds on them.

"The guy's slick, I tell you," said Winston Knauss, 64, of Miami Beach, who built the boat as a dinner cruiser and sold it to Dwek in 1998. "I've been trying to collect the money ever since I sold the boat to him."

Knauss won a $1.1 million federal court judgment against Dwek in March.

More than three months after Dwek was arrested by the FBI on charges of defrauding PNC Bank with a worthless $25.2 million check he wrote out and deposited on April 24, five dozen investors and contractors claim Dwek owes them $156.5 million. Twenty banks claim Dwek owes them $181.9 million.

A state Superior Court judge is overseeing the sale of Dwek's empire, in excess of 350 properties, to pay the $338 million creditors say they are owed.

Michael B. Himmel, Dwek's criminal defense attorney, said the problem with the check is a business dispute, not a crime.

There have been no court hearings on the merits of the claims by investors and contractors.

But in Superior Court, investors claimed Dwek convinced them to provide tens of millions of dollars for phony projects. One investor, for example, said Dwek spent the money on his own "pursuits, purposes and use."

Two investors, including an uncle, Joseph Dwek, claim they are owed $23 million just from one deal. They say Solomon Dwek took their money to buy the exclusive 18-hole Deal Golf & Country Club, but club members didn't want to sell.

Joseph Dwek and another investor, Isaac Franco, claim they gave Dwek $45 million to buy and resell dozens of properties to Meridian Health System, the owner of Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, Ocean Medical Center in Brick and Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank.

But Meridian closed only two deals with Dwek, in which it sold him two properties in 2000 and 2003, according to Meridian President John K. Lloyd.

"Dwek . . . used Meridian Health's name and reputation" to advance his "troubled" deals, Lloyd said.

Unkept promises
Until his May 11 arrest by the FBI on bank fraud charges, Dwek, 33, was a high-paid administrator of the religious school that he and his parents operated. Some in the Sephardic community said Dwek is a kindhearted man who inexplicably ran afoul of the law.

"It is hurtful to our name, our people, our community, our religion," said Isaac Sultan, 65, of Ocean Township, a member of the Sephardic Jewish community in which Dwek lives. "Nobody is gaining or benefiting from this poor publicity. But, unfortunately, the federal courthouse is there. The FBI is there. No one can wish it away. The deed is done, the die is cast, and it will take its course." Sultan was not an investor with Dwek.

But even as Dwek's empire was falling, he didn't stop making promises to people whose money he wouldn't give back, according to court claims.

Take 54-year-old Jack R. Hakim of Ocean Township.

According to court documents, by late April, Dwek was overdue to repay Hakim his $1.1 million personal loan. Hakim also had given Dwek a $2.6 million investment in September, but Dwek was late in buying a Neptune property with that money.

Hakim began sending Dwek increasingly desperate e-mails.

"Please, please, please take care of the 1st deal today and not on Thursday as you stated yesterday. I really need to have it today," Hakim e-mailed Dwek on Tuesday, May 2.

But even after a Superior Court judge froze Dwek's assets on May 3, Dwek continued to make promises. Dwek's verbatim response to Hakim:

"I am selling today. they will fund once the court releases my funds that will take a few days. Don't worry you will get pd in full. Thanks for all."

Hakim said he's never seen a penny of his money.

In court papers, Dwek denied the fraud claims by PNC and Hakim.

In state Superior Court, other investors say they have been burned by Dwek. The investors include:

The uncle, Joseph Dwek, 54, of Brooklyn, who said he gave his nephew $60.2 million since 2003 to buy investment properties. The elder Dwek said he later learned none of the properties was placed in his name.

After PNC Bank said Solomon Dwek bounced the $25.2 million check, he agreed to transfer 129 properties to his uncle to "ameliorate the fraud Solomon had perpetrated on me," Joseph Dwek said in court papers. However, Solomon Dwek put 20 of those properties in his wife's name, the uncle's lawyer said.

Isaac S. Franco of Brooklyn said Dwek "stole" $28 million from him by using "phony" real estate contracts, according to court documents. Some of the property didn't even exist, Franco said.

But in this case, Dwek did repay a loan he and Franco had taken out with HSBC Bank. According to the FBI and court information, Dwek used $20 million of the phony deposit into PNC Bank to pay off a loan he and Franco received from HSBC Bank.

Real estate developer Charles Ishay of Brooklyn claimed Dwek took $5 million to help buy the Deal Golf & Country Club. But Dwek knew the club was no longer for sale when he took the money, Ishay claims.

A group of Jersey Shore University Medical Center doctors wired $500,000 to Dwek in December to buy a Neptune property to build a medical office.

Dwek said, "Guys, we're running out of time, let's get this deal going," said Steven D. Scherzer, an Atlantic City lawyer who represents the doctors in their claims against Dwek. That was the last they saw of their money, they claim.

Victor S. Franco, 54, of Manhattan said he gave Dwek $1.5 million in September, in exchange for a half interest in a quick buy-and-sell contract on a Neptune commercial building. But Dwek lied about the deal and misspent the money, Franco said in court documents.

Dwek has not responded in court to the claims of Joseph Dwek, Isaac Franco, Victor Franco, Charles Ishay or the doctors.

But Dwek, for years, has fought the builder of his former gambling boat in court.

[steve]

Dwek did not wash his hands of the deal. He had a financial interest in the strip club's business. If stripping at sea proved successful, the operator would have paid off Dwek's debt to Knauss.

But the strip club operator didn't pay his bills, either.

Touted as the world's first "nude adult entertainment" cruise ship, the vessel was repossessed by the U.S. Marshals Service in Cape Canaveral, Fla., after the new operator defaulted on the loan.

On board, Knauss found the one-time dinner cruiser equipped with mirrors and a strippers' pole. Its purple and red staterooms had rented for $300 an hour. During its 5 1/2-hour trips, the boat cruised into international waters, where its operators said it was not subject to Florida's adult entertainment laws, according to news reports and company press releases.

When the marshals auctioned the boat at the Tampa federal courthouse in 2002, it sold for $645,000, less than Dwek's $950,000 loan, which records show he never paid.

In 2003, the IRS filed a $212,390 lien for unpaid taxes by Camelot against Dwek's West Long Branch business address. The lien is unpaid, records show.

Then in March, after Knauss spent $210,778 suing Dwek, a federal judge ordered Dwek to pay Knauss $1.1 million, which includes interest and his legal fees.

Dwek appealed. Knauss has yet to see the money.

"He's been jerking me around for seven years," Knauss said.

Rechristened the Cornucopia Destiny, the boat is now close to Dwek in New Jersey. It is back to being a dinner cruise ship. It is docked in Perth Amboy, just east of the Route 35 Victory Bridge, where thousands of drivers can see it every day.

[harold]

I sure hope that Dwek is the one on trial. What a low life. A real piece of Dreck.

[Bill]

I am shocked! Shocked to learn that there are hookers in a casino!

[chabib]

I guess the hookers get the patrons
hooked on the gambling fever.

[danny]

Money is a curse. I'm glad I don't really have any.

[danny]

Why do I get the feeling that a good portion of the frum population parties harder, get's more tail, does more/better drugs, and schnorrs more gelt than I'll ever do?

I'm secular -- and presumably free to partake in the above -- but somehow I can find contentment with much more modest pursuits.

[Big Jew]

Danny
A good portion?! Don't be ridiculous! There are a few bad apples here and there certainly far less than you think.

[danny]

Thanks for the clarification. I'll admit to some hyperbole on my part.

I'm relieved to know that I won't have to join a yeshiva to get some action.

[Hometown Postville]

"I'll say whatever you want, Mr Prosecutor, as long as it gets me off the hook! Just let me keep collecting my $10,000 a month- my family IS bankrupt, you know! The boat? Oh, that was a rehab center for homeless prostitutes! I had many friends who counseled them."

[state of Disgust]

HP:
LOL!
Maybe a good business for Postville. Take one of the bankrupt river boats and haul it over to P'ville. All the sexually repressed frummies in town would provide a good customer base. The mayor could run the place - he seems to have knack for selling himself.

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I am shocked! Shocked to learn that there are hookers in a casino!

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[acomplia]

I like to comment this post about gambling

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[DON]

solomon dwek will have a appeal in his case new evidence arises following a new trial, he is innocent and will be set free.
god and jesus will help you

[Joe Schmoe]

"Dwek" is what Elmer Fudd does in the toilet!