Published: Friday, December 03, 2010, 9:00 AM

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/12/union_city_real_estate_develop.html

UNION CITY — Moshe Altman was a small-time developer who got caught up in a big-time federal sting.

One of the first targets in last year’s sweeping investigation that nabbed more than 44 people — including mayors, assemblymen, rabbis, public officials and even someone selling black market kidneys — Altman was the unwitting nexus of it all. He was the bridge that turned a long-running money laundering probe into the biggest public corruption bust in New Jersey history.

Thursday, he pleaded guilty in a nearly empty federal courtroom in Newark to charges of laundering more than half a million dollars for an undercover informant, and subsequently arranging a $20,000 cash payoff to a Jersey City building inspector.

Altman, 40, was the 24th defendant to plead guilty in the sting. Three people have been convicted in court and one died shortly after his arrest. One, Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, was acquitted.

A soft-spoken real estate developer with a sixth-grade education from Monsey, N.Y., Altman operated out of a small, second-floor office above a laundromat in Union City. It was there that he was first introduced to Solomon Dwek — the FBI’s key cooperating witness in the sting operation who began working as an informant after being charged in a $50 million bank fraud.

Dwek and Altman, both members of Orthodox Jewish communities, did not know each other and were brought together by Shimon Haber, another real estate developer who had done business with both in the past. Haber pleaded guilty to related money laundering charges in January and was sentenced in May to five months in prison and five months of home confinement.

In Thursday’s court hearing before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares, Altman told Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley Harsch that he helped launder $668,000 in checks he believed had come out of Dwek’s bankrupt business, and from the sale of high-end counterfeit handbags.

Altman also told Harsch that he later arranged for Dwek to bribe John Guarini, the building inspector later used by the FBI to connect Dwek with other political contacts that ultimately led to meetings with dozens of Hudson County elected officials. Among them included former Democratic Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, who currently is on trial in the same courtroom where Altman appeared.

Guarini is due to go to trial early next year.

According to criminal complaints filed in the case, Dwek first met with Haber and Altman in early 2007, just weeks after he began secretly working for the government in the wake of the collapse of his own investment empire. Wearing a hidden surveillance camera, Dwek arranged to launder checks he claimed were from his bankrupt business. The money actually came from a front company set up by the FBI.

"Question is, if I bring in money, how many of these guys can convert it?" Dwek asked Altman, according to transcripts of surveillance tapes attached to the criminal complaints. Haber pointed to Altman. "He has washing machines," he said, according to the transcript.

The money was funneled through several religious charities. The washing machines, say federal authorities, referred to Gmach Shefa Chaim, a free-loan society that served the Hasidic Jewish community.

Altman told Harsch that he continued to launder checks for Dwek through July 2009, when the sting operation was taken down.

But while Dwek was setting up a growing web of money laundering transactions with others, including several rabbis, federal prosecutors began looking to expand the sting into the arena of public corruption — initially through Altman’s contacts.

According to the criminal complaints, the first efforts through Altman involved making political contributions in Union City in an effort to get zoning approvals for a condominium project. Later, Altman introduced Dwek to Guarini.

Altman told Harsch that he told Guarini that Dwek — who by then was going by the alias of David Esenbach — was looking for a "comfort level" on "zoning" and other matters regarding properties that he planned to develop. He said Guarini told him he would "get the blessing from everybody up above" for Esenbach to obtain his approvals.

Altman said Dwek met Guarini in the boiler room of a building in Jersey City, where Dwek paid off the inspector with $20,000 in cash.

Guarini has declared his innocence.

It was Dwek’s initial meetings with Guarani that later led to introductions with others with wider Hudson County political hooks, including Maher Khalil, a former Jersey City health official, and Edward Cheatam, a member of the city’s housing authority. Both have also pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the government, with Cheatam currently testifying in the ongoing Smith trial before Linares.

Altman said nothing following the court session. His attorney, Jacob Laufer of New York, said his client had accepted responsibility for what had happened.

"He’s looking forward to the next stage of his life," said Laufer.

Altman faces 20 years in prison, although is likely to receive less than that under federal sentencing guidelines. He is due to be sentenced March 21.