Леви-Ицхак Розенбаум, житель Бруклина (район Нью-Йорка) израильского происхождения, в четверг, 27 октября, признал свою вину в незаконной торговле человеческими органами. Эксперты отмечают, что это будет первый обвинительный приговор в истории.
В федеральном суде Трентона Розенбаум признался, что незаконно продал три почки жителям Нью-Джерси за суммы от 120 тысяч долларов и выше, сообщает агентство Assocated Press. Закупал он человеческие органы в Израиле по 10 тысяч долларов.
Адвокаты «черного трансплантолога», Рональд Кляйнберг и Ричард Финкель, заявили, что своими действиями Розенбаум только помогал людям, которые вынуждены были стоять в непомерно долгих очередях за органами. «Трансплантации прошли успешно, и доноры, и пациенты теперь живут полной и здоровой жизнью», - говорится в их заявлении.
По этому делу проходит не один Розенбаум — вместе с ним полиция арестовала более 40 человек в 2009 году, среди которых есть американские чиновники и политики, часть из которых будут судить за коррупцию. Кроме того, в нашумевшем деле в качестве обвиняемых фигурировали даже еврейские раввины. Стоит отметить, что подсудимый состоял в ортодоксальной еврейской общине Бруклина, что придало этой истории еще более широкий резонанс.
В случае обвинительного приговора 60-летнему Леви-Ицхаку Розенбауму грозит 20 лет тюрьмы и штраф в 250 тысяч долларов.
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| Israeli citizen who made millions off black market organ trade and proclaimed himself the 'Robin Hood of kidneys' is released from US prison |
Brooklyn, NY – Man Arrested For Organ Trafficking Reportedly Pulled Gun On Hesitant “Donors”
Brooklyn, NY – The Brooklyn man arrested Thursday for dealing in black-market kidneys was identified to the FBI seven years ago as a major figure in a global human organ ring. Levy-Izhak Rosenbaum’s name, address and even phone number were passed to an FBI agent in a meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan by a prominent anthropologist who has been studying and documenting organ trafficking for more than a decade.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes of the University of California, Berkeley, was and is very clear as to Rosenbaum’s role in the ring.
“He is the main U.S. broker for an international trafficking network,” she said.Her sources include a man who started working with Rosenbaum imagining he was helping people in desperate need. The man then began to see the donors, or to be more accurate, sellers, who were flown in from impoverished countries such as Moldova.
“He said it was awful. These people would be brought in and they didn’t even know what they were supposed to be doing and they would want to go home and they would cry,” Scheper-Hughes said.The man called Rosenbaum “a thug” who would pull out a pistol he was apparently licensed to carry and tell the sellers, “You’re here. A deal is a deal. Now, you’ll give us a kidney or you’ll never go home.’ ”
Scheper-Hughes felt she had to stop Rosenbaum. She met with the FBI.
“I always thought of it as my Dick Tracy moment,” she said Thursday.
She waited and waited for something to be done. The FBI may have been following the lead of the State Department, which dismissed organ trafficking as “urban legend.”
“It would be impossible to conceal a clandestine organ trafficking ring,” a 2004 State Department report stated.
Scheper-Hughes had better luck in Brazil and in South Africa, where law enforcement corroborated her findings and acted decisively.
But the ring kept operating elsewhere. Scheper-Hughes visited villages in Moldova where, “20% of the men were siphoned off to be kidney sellers in this same scheme.”
Back in Brooklyn, Rosenbaum stayed busy. He was contacted by an FBI informant who introduced Rosenbaum to an undercover agent who supposedly wanted to buy a kidney for her uncle.
“I’m doing this a long time,” Rosenbaum was recorded saying.
The undercover asked how many organs he had sold.
“Quite a lot,” he answered.
On Wednesday, the FBI called Scheper-Hughes, who is putting her findings into the upcoming, “A World Cut in Two, The Global Traffic in Humans for Organs.”
“Why are you calling me now?” she asked.
Thursday, seven years after her Dick Tracy moment with the FBI at the Roosevelt Hotel, Rosenbaum was finally arrested.
Note: The individual is accused of a crime, and is not guilty until proven otherwise by a court of law
