what was really shocking about the reported payoffs was that the prices were so low. This was penny ante stuff.

The only thing worse than having your city or state officials prosecuted for corruption is having them not prosecuted and let the corruption continue and grow.

The feds had him and frankly, with Madoff (and before that Adelphia, Scrushy and so on) being used as the measuring stick financial sentences, he could have gone away forever.  So, being a life-long dealmaker, he made a deal.  He had been doing real estate, so keep that and his dealmaker history in the back of your mind until later.

Dwek's status as "charged with a crime" was no secret in the close-knit and insular community.  He knew who was and who was not allegedly crooked and, when he needed to do something crooked (like, "I'm in bankruptcy and have stuff I want to hide.  Will you help me by laundering this money?") he knew who to talk to.  

That led to the money-laundering aspect of it, almost all of which was intra-Jewish community.

Along the way of money-laundering, he got introduced to both the guys with the knockoff goods and the guy who brokered kidneys.  Basically, the same community, but maybe some new guys.

Probably as much to keep his cover as a real estate macher going as anything (he was in trouble but still working, yadda, yadda), but also because Hudson County is forever a screwed-up place where corruption is a way of life*, Dwek moved into looking to do real estate development in Jersey City and Hoboken.  I have little doubt that he could have found the same kind of corruption closer to home in Monmouth and Ocean counties but one has to remember that at the time (2006-2007) he started moving north, (a) Hudson County was still in the real estate boom with new projects getting started and (b) Chris Christie was still US Attorney, Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-1 in Hudson County, and Corzine and Menendez (two of Christie's biggest targets) are both from Hudson county.  Indeed, both of them live in Hoboken.  I am told that, until recently, they both lived in the same building.  Christe was nothing if not a loyal Bushie, targeting Democrats for corruption investigations almost exclusively.  So, I can see a big informant like Dwek being pointed toward Hudson county.

One also has to understand the geography of Hudson county.  It's almost entirely built-up.  Solid city from boundary to boundary.  All the development going on there is really re-development.  A lot of the sites are formerly industrial, so there is always the possibility of needing a cleanup.  Costs are higher, if only because the "tight" nature of sites makes maneuvering construction equipment and material a lot more difficult.  And, of course, there's greed.  So, to make a profit off a deal, one has to build to the maximum density one can get on every single site.  

These towns all have zoning which severely restricts height, density and lot coverage.  To make a profit, it often seems or is necessary to get variances from the zoning - the property owners price the land such that you almost can't make a profit without them.  And, by their nature, variances are discretionary on the part of government officials ... members of zoning boards appointed by ... politicians. Those board members are unpaid volunteers and hear these cases in the evening hours they are taking from their families to be good citizens.  As pretty much anywhere, the hearings go late into the evening - 11 or midnight - and an adjournment can result in a delay of literally months.

Even if an application were guaranteed to be approved, the timing of when an application gets heard and decided can be vital to a deal succeeding.  While the recent declines in the real estate market have been sharp enough for homeowners, imagine you were a developer whose project has been held up waiting on a board to hear the application.  You are carrying the cost of the property and everything else waiting on a volunteer board to get around to hearing you.  

So, getting to the head of the line and getting heard expeditiously is vital.

Also, the political culture of Hudson county is sui generis.  There are still literal political clubhouses run and devoted to a particular person.  The deployment of street workers before, during and after elections is enormous.  Not all of them are volunteers - a lot are people picking up a hundred here or there in street money from campaigns.  Candidacies cost a lot of money here.

In any event, the story goes that after a few introductions and some meetings, Dwek starts meeting with officials in Jersey City, seeking to get some promises of expedition in projects he would be bringing before that city, and spreading money around to both officials and candidates.

Then, as the story goes, Dwek spreads out into Hoboken.  The mayoral election this year had three candidates.  One was knocked out in the first election in May, and the winner selected in the runoff in June.  The local weekly paper there reports (you will love the lede) that not only did Dwek meet with (and allegedly pass money to) Cammarano, the new mayor, but he also met with the candidate knocked out in the first round (Mason) and sought to meet with the candidate who lost the runoff (Zimmer).  According to the local paper, Mason and an aide met Dwek at a diner, heard what he was looking to do (trade contributions for priority on development approvals), and Mason told him to go to hell.  It never even got to the point of a meeting between Dwek and Zimmer, because Zimmer was the "anti-development" candidate in the race and, so the story tells us, this was made so clear to Dwek in the initial phone call from him that he never bothered to try to go further.

So, as a snitch, he was looking to ensnare anyone and everyone.  I think the term "Stakhanovite" would apply.  But, in the end, this mammoth case is a case made on the testimony of one snitch, though admittedly caught on tape.  He had a lot to work off for the feds, and worked at it.

BTW - it's been years since I've been to Deal, NJ, but I recall it as one of the most beautiful shore towns anywhere.  It's all big houses backing up to the beach, not tacky-tawdry at all.

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