Man Pleads Guilty to Trafficking Kidneys in New Jersey

[n2doc]

By Ted Sherman, The Star Ledger October 27, 2011 | 7:40 pm | Categories: Miscellaneous

Levy Itzhak Rosenbaum, 60, of Brooklyn (left) is led by his attorneys Ronald Kleinberg (center) and Richard A. Finkel (right) into the Clarkson Fisher Federal Courthouse in Trenton today to plead guilty for his role in trafficking human kidneys. (Tony Kurdzuk/Star-Ledger)


TRENTON — The price was steep. As much as $160,000 to secure a donor willing to give up a human kidney for transplant.

And Levy Itzhak Rosenbaum — who told neighbors in Brooklyn he dabbled in construction and real estate — bragged on surveillance recordings that he had participated in many such black market deals.

Today, the 60-year-old Israeli pleaded guilty in federal court to helping an FBI informant procure a kidney as part of an elaborate federal sting. At the same time, he admitted arranging transplants for three other New Jersey patients with failing kidneys — all of whom underwent surgery in out-of-state hospitals after paying Rosenbaum. None of the patients or hospitals was named, nor were they charged.

It marked the first time in this country anyone has ever been convicted for brokering illegal kidney transplants for profit.


more

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/black-market-kidneys/

[Cirque du So-What]

1. The only thing puzzling to me

is why it took so long for this practice to come to light. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that this organ-trafficking ring had made payoffs in some very high places, which stands to reason, considering that the donor got up to $160K + hospital costs + finder's fees, so the recipient must be wealthy. Guess the bagman failed to make a drop to some corrupt prosecutor.

[n2doc]

2. kick n/t