Brooklyn, NY – Alleged Kidney Trafficker Got Charity Funds From Madoff

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    Levy Rosenbaum was brought to the FBIs attention by anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes in 2002.Brooklyn, NY – 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.

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    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.


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    66 Comments
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    yoiser says
    yoiser says
    14 years ago

    did he   the end save any lives?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    is he involved with drek or the FBI just arested him the same time to spice up their story for PR & media purposes

    ubet
    ubet
    14 years ago

    Rosenbaum saved many lives

    Loshon Hora
    Loshon Hora
    14 years ago

    Bernie is much more honerable [not to say he is any way honerable] than Dreck, he didn’t rat others to save his skin on crimes he commited.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    He saved many lives

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    he may have made money but in cases of pikuach nefesh the ends DO justify the means !!! enough said case closed BAIL HIM OUT

    Robert
    Robert
    14 years ago

    assuming all that is alleged against him is true ..how do you think this will play out in front of jury most of whom are gentile…i am amazed reading the various posts over the last few days that find ways of defending this sort of behavior and even blaming the government or the informers….jewish charities in the USA should not be in the money laundering business period! there is nothing to discuss in that regard in my opinion….and by the way a kidney transplant is not necessarily “pikuach nefesh” people are maintained for years on hemodialysis and there is powerful and potentially dangerous anti-rejection drugs these patients take for the rest of their lives that do have serious side effects. how many people in bourough park donate their organs (such as kidneys) altruistically? (that means for a mitzvah not for money)..? according to those who feel it is saving a life (like number 8) here is your chance to step up and donate one of yours (assuming you are healthy) so…is it all talk on your part or will you lead the way

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    He offered these people something they couldn’t get. If the govt would make it legal then with the regulations and ins co. Expect to pay 300 thousand.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Maybe he was cleaning and filtering Madoff’s charity too!

    Robert
    Robert
    14 years ago

    a connection to madoff..wow these are real ethical jews !!….. i know people here will say its a government conspiracy and yadda yadda they were entrapped (like that will work in front of a jury)…. institutionalized criminality on the part of jewish charities and people here actually defend them .. if madoff was religious i bet they would defend him too against the government shakedown conspiracy etc….

    Robert
    Robert
    14 years ago

    as a practicing surgeon i can say that kidney transplants are not necessarily life saving..they do enhance a quality of life but there are substantive post operative issues that blurr the life saving component… it is certainly not black and white as number 1 seems to imply…
    the issue of paid organ transplantation is a valid political discussion and my sympathies are towards an honest regulated market, however in 2009 it is illegal in the USA to traffic in organs…if you want to traffic in organs no matter how noble your calling (i am sure $160,000 had nothing to do with it in this particular case) then be prepared to go to jail as a political dissident .. and fight to change the law

    EMES
    EMES
    14 years ago

    Rabbi Rosenbaum did not force people. People approached him. In our family someone who needed a kidney was referred to Rosenbaum by a very reputable community member. No one should come to the point of having to sell a kidney to be able to do such as marry off a child, which many people did for that reason.
    Rosenbaum did not become a millionaire from this. He was doing pure chesed, altruism. Why people are ready to jump on the bandwagon to slander and gossip is not to be understood but a sin that people should read into before letting their tongues wag. This week on Tisha Baav we read the kinos, lamentations. They are written in the Judaic alphabetic order except for the Ayin and Pay which are reversed. Ayin stands for eye (Ayin is a letter and also means eye in Hebrew) and the letter Pay is beginning for Peh which means mouth in Hebrew. One of the reasons for destructions of the Bais Hamikdash, Holy temple was that the Peh, mouth spoke what the Ayin did not see.
    We have no right to jump on to what the media is presenting. Nothing was proven yet. We should not go on the basis what a Moser, slanderer got innocent people into.
    Before talking we should examine our own doings because the faults we find in others are usually within us.
    Our family member was lucky enough to get a kidney through the legitimate organization RENEWAL, at no cost.
    Mi kiamcha Yisroel.
    Let us get together at help get innocent people out of this mess.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    What’s wrong with it, #16 is that he allegedly held people at gunpoint. Would you want to be held at gunpoint? I know I wouldn’t.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    The reason he sold at that price was to cover the medical expenses meaning if a yid came by and he had 2 kidnnys he usely gave one and sold the others to help the yid cover his medical expenses maybe he charge the yid a small token sum but he would cover the bulk he made very lil of the profit for himself

    Jew Lover
    Jew Lover
    14 years ago

    Why this attack against Chassidim? Look how people are ready to attack Chassidim. This man was Litvishe and sent his kids to Litvishe Yeshiva – yet people are ready to attack Chassidim. It is interesting, though. It is almost that devout looking Jew= chassid. Mmm…

    A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have...
    A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have...
    14 years ago

    What is the difference if he was chasidish or not or where he sent his kids to yeshiva. Perhaps he sent his kids to a litvish yeshiva so they should know how to learn instead of sending them to a chasidish yeshiva where they would – possibly – have more yiras sho’mayim. He is a YID who is purported to be a shomer torah u’mitzvos.

    Rabosi, just because someone was arrested doesn’t mean they are guilty. We need to remember that very very well. HKBH will judge us like we judge others. Do WE want to be judged guilty without being afforded a “trial” by HKBH. Don’t forget what Rashi brings when Yosef HaTzadik revealed himself to his brothers, “Oy lanu l’yom ha’din, oy lanu l’yom ha’tochacha.”

    Did we perhaps fall from our pedestal? Yes but lets do what we can to bring ourselves up again. It is us to ALL of us!

    Loshon Hora
    Loshon Hora
    14 years ago

    Robert could I come and inspect your bank account, taxes, books, workers & the way you do business & keep shabboss.
    I suggest you shut up people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. It takes one to know one, your are definatly the one, although I am less convinced Rosenbaum is, BTW it is all based on evidence & soundbites gathered & edited by arch thief Dreck, who managed to get a bank to part with 25 million for a piece of paper. I guess you noticed the bank staff has yet to be paraded B4 cameras in cuffs for their sin.
    Robert or what ever your name is when they Chas veshalom [I hope you do tshuva soon] catch you for being a sergeon without a liscence(at least claiming to be one) & all the rest of your crimes & parade you B4 the cameras how would you like us to speak like you did. Based on biased media & an archcrook.
    Say you did nothing ever which I highly doubt, BC baal mum bemumo Posel, but what proof do you have they did anything they were not convicted in court let alone beis Din & for sure not bais din shel maaloh.
    Now go 2what it is rumoured Moshe Finkel did on Thursday night.

    #15,#16
    #15,#16
    14 years ago

    Obviously to many of these so-called frum people, nothing matters.The law-? Eh, who cares?Organ trafficking?Oh so what- everyone makes money so it’s fine.These are all tzaddikim and everyone should either emulate their behaviors since it is only the masser’s fault anyway…..nice for Jews to express all this and all it shows is that money and greed have become your new Torah so SHAME ON YOU..If anyone needs to reflect on what you have become, You are the ones who need to do some soul-searching.You have a long way to go!

    posheter yid
    posheter yid
    14 years ago

    as if surgery is rightfully priced

    Chaim
    Chaim
    14 years ago

    So the guy who sold his kidney made 10k. The price was 140k. On the surface it definitely looks like he was gauging the desperate. If so the jury will find him guilty and he will go to jail for life. But there are doctors who were paid. they don’t work for free. If it turns out that he didn’t make that much money then I see the defense. Line up five recipients who are alive today because of him and wait for the jury to do the rest. If kevorkian was able to manipulate the jury’s sympathy for killing people than certainly this guy will convince the jury that he saved people. It all depends on how much he made.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Please let me wake up some of you with slash of could water in your faces, if you only go to the affidavit and you read it carefully, it seems to me that CW offered up to Rosenberg a lady who was looking for a kidney for her uncle, guess this lady was an FBI agent and probably not even Jewish so all of you stop with your assertions that he only did pikuach nefesh, she was not even Jewish, to the defenders are blinded are you all, don’t you see it was all motivated for the profits and big bucks.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    As someone who donated a kidney (to my husband) and is familiar with the process, I have a question for the ones who are commenting about the cost involved in transporting the kidney. Transplant can only be done after numerous tests on the donor and his willingness to donate his kidney. usually has to go through psychological interview also. in the US medicare pays for transplant. So what are all these extra costs that could add up to the over 100,000? It is a great thing to arrange for someone to have a transplant, but still have to follow the law of the land. Thank G-d, I was a match for my husband, and we didn’t have to look for alternates. but, I cannot guarantee that if it wouldn’t have worked out that we would not have tried to find a kidney and compensated the donor somehow,

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    If he made 1000.00 for himself and not 100,000 then most of you would be ok with it. So all of you stop being so jealous, you have no idea what was involved and the common denominator in all these posts (minus a couple) is the amount of money he profited. If you are able to buy a house for 100K do you have to sell it for 150K? or can you sell it to the highest bidder for 1 Million?
    Because the media says he did it lots of times, or supposedly said “Ive done it lots of times” does not mean its true. I am not defending him, but I am sure that most people would pay if they could to save a life. I am not an MD but go do a survey in a hemodialysis center and see if people feel like they are alive and well or not.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Why is everyone missing the boat here? It doesn’t matter how much he sold them for or whether or not he had good intentions. If he did in fact set a fixed price to them then, regardless of how much profit he made, he broke the law and, whether he’s litvish, chasidishe, black, white, or Argentinian, he will be brought to justice. If the law was left up to people’s good intentions we’d all be in big trouble. I wish I could assume his innocence but, if he is in fact proven guilty, the chilul hashem is just unforgivable.

    והוה דן את כל האדם לכף זכות
    והוה דן את כל האדם לכף זכות
    14 years ago

    What I can’t understand is how they threw in the fellow’s name making it sound as if he bought/sold body parts.

    How about if it really happened this way:

    There are many who need kidney transplants. This fellow, a caring person, searches and finds with much effort, a suitable donor from Israel. Now, the donor will have to travel back and forth from Israel to the states, yes? He will have to lose a few months from work, yes? He will lose a few months salary from his job, yes? So, if this donor gets compensated for all of this $10,000. It’s really nothing. Now compensation for lost time, money, etc. is permissible.

    OK? Now the recipient might be a very wealthy person who willingly giving $160,000 to this organization, so that other people with limited financial means could benefit and get kidney replacements.

    So, all of sudden now, there is absolutely no buying/selling here, but permissible acts of kindness!!

    giti
    giti
    14 years ago

    This is a true hilul hashem. What he did was despicable. Not because he tried to save lives but because he paid a suppossed $10,000 and in turn received $160,000. Only desperate people would sell their kidneys and he took advantage of their weakness while raking in huge profits for himself. I hope he goes to jail for the rest of his life.