A Brooklyn man became the first person in the U.S. convicted of organ-trafficking when he pleaded guilty Thursday to selling black-market kidneys at a huge markup. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 60, admitted to brokering just three transplants, but he boasted on tape that he actually handled “quite a lot” during the decade-long scheme.
His lawyers portrayed him as an altruistic middleman who helped save lives.
And in Trenton federal court, Rosenbaum described one case like this: “The son told me the father has kidney failure … I helped him.”
Prosecutors charged he was a profiteer who paid vulnerable Israelis as little as $10,000 to give up a kidney and charged desperate Americans $120,000 and up for the organs.
“A black market in human organs is not only a grave threat to public health, it reserves lifesaving treatment for those who can best afford it at the expense of those who cannot,” said New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.
“We will not tolerate such an affront to human dignity.”
Rosenbaum faces up to 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced Feb. 2. He also agreed to forfeit $420,000 he got in connection with the three transplants.
In court, he admitted he created cover stories for each case, inventing fictitious relationships between donors and recipients so doctors wouldn’t know a kidney was being sold.
His lawyers noted that the surgeries took place in “prestigious American hospitals and were performed by experienced and expert” surgeons.
“The transplants were successful and the donors and recipients are now leading full and healthy lives,” they said in a statement.
They claimed the money Rosenbaum got went to pay expenses and that the recipients would have died if they didn’t get the illegal kidneys.
Rosenbaum, who owns millions of dollars worth of real estate, was arrested two years ago during a massive probe of New Jersey corruption that took down politicians and rabbis.
An FBI informant posed as a businessman looking for a new kidney for a sick uncle, and Rosenbaum fell for the ruse.
“I am what you call a matchmaker,” he told the snitch. “I’ve never had a failure.”
The case shone a light on the ghoulish world of organ-trafficking, which has been illegal since 1984, and ignited debate on whether it should be legalized.
