Recent Events in the News

'The Kidney Guy' Pleads Guilty to Facilitating Black Market

Posted on Oct 31, 2011

An Orthodox Jewish man from Brooklyn pled guilty this Friday, October 28, to facilitating kidney exchanges on the black market -- the first such case in American history. The charges were one count of conspiracy and three counts of taking cash related to acquiring human organs intended for transplants.

The plea was made in the Trenton, NJ, federal district court by 60-year-old Israeli citizen Mr. Levy Izhak Rosenbaum. Court spectators had expected a guilty plea only to the count of conspiracy. For brokering kidney transactions for $120,000 or more, Mr. Rosenbaum now faces 20 years behind bars.

Mr. Rosenbaum's arrest was part of the highly-publicized Orthodox community FBI sting in New York and New Jersey involving then-NJ Attorney General Chris Christie on July 23, 2009.

Rosenbaum was involved in a Brooklyn-based charity known as Kav Lachayim (“path to life”) United Lifeline. He is devoutly religious and was considered to have both the demeanor and the background of an individual highly unlikely to engage in organ-trafficking. Still, after using an undercover FBI agent, who infiltrated the organization and a real-estate investor criminal-turned-informant, the FBI gathered the necessary evidence to bring Mr. Rosenbaum to court.

Gerry practices law exclusively in the State of New York. Within New York he practices primarily in the following counties: New York, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk. Technically, Brooklyn is known as "Kings County," and Manhattan and New York City are known as "New York County." Staten Island is known as "Richmond County." These counties make up the New York metropolitan area.