Is it surprising how many boxes the IRS removed from the Deal Yeshiva?
The FBI this morning made 30 arrests in a two-track public corruption and high-volume, international money laundering probe, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.Those arrested include Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, R-Ocean, and several unidentified religious leaders from Brooklyn, Deal and the Elberon section of Long Branch, sources said. . The subjects of the arrests also include religious leaders from the Syrian Jewish enclaves in Brooklyn, Deal and Elberon. The investigation involves the Deal Yeshiva, a religious school which teaches children in the Sephardic Jewish tradition, sources said. The Yeshiva has two separate divisions: a boys’ school on Logan Road in Ocean Township and a girls’ school on Wall Street in West Long Branch.From the Star-Ledger: The arrests are the result of a two-year FBI and IRS probe that began with an investigation of money transfers by members of the Syrian enclaves in Deal and Brooklyn. Those arrested this morning include key religious leaders
DEAL — This small town was inundated today with FBI agents raiding homes, arresting rabbis and leaving other synagogue members confused and betrayed in today’s broad-ranging corruption and international money laundering investigation. Two of the 44 people federal authorities arrested in New Jersey and New York today included two principle rabbis of synagogues in Deal, Eliahu Ben Haim, of Long Branch, and Edmund Nahum, of Deal. Word that local religious leaders had been arrested spread quickly through the town this morning. “I’m shocked,” said one female resident who declined to give her name. “It’s going to be a big problem.” Deal has one of the largest population of Syrian Jewish communities in the country. That the wealthy town of Deal has a Syrian Jewish community at all owes to its place as a summer favorite for Syrian Jews from Brooklyn, over 10,000 of whom visit each June through September. The ones who stay year-round have built about a dozen Orthodox synagogues and at least fo
