The Jersey Sting by Ted Sherman

Author:Ted Sherman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

13

March Madness

Each morning in Newark, there was a status discussion among those in Special Prosecutions, who would gather in Jimmy Nobile’s office to talk about Mike from Monsey.

There were concerns almost daily about the state of the case. They had already drawn up contingency plans about what would need to happen if they were forced to take the case down immediately. They knew it could be any time, with that possibility growing more and more likely each day. Dwek was meeting new people all the time, playing “Dwek” here and “Esenbach” over there, and working in business and political universes that gave new meaning to the words “it’s a small world.”

The conversations always opened the same, with Nobile asking bluntly, “Are we still alive?”

In fact, there had been several close calls.

Months earlier, Denis Jaslow, an investigator for the Hudson County Board of Elections and a former corrections officer, had been pulled into Dwek’s circle by Khalil in an effort to hook Esenbach up with officials in North Bergen. But Jaslow suddenly became suspicious after a Christmas card he sent to Dwek at the New York address of BH Properties—which was no more than a mail drop for the FBI front company—was returned as undeliverable. Jaslow relayed his dark suspicions to Khalil, who called up Dwek one Tuesday evening in early January.

“I got a phone call from Denis,” Khalil told Esenbach. “Doesn’t want to do business now with you. Doesn’t want to get involved.”

Dwek laughed it off. “What’s his problem?”

“He said, ‘I don’t feel comfortable with him. He’s wired. He’s trying to set me up. He’s a federal informer.’”

Dwek was cool on the wiretap, not hesitating for a moment, as he feigned surprise. “A what?!”

“A federal informer.”

“I’ve been developing property for eighteen years,” said Dwek evenly. “I mean, what does he want me to do, stop developing?”

Khalil hesitated and said only that Jaslow didn’t feel comfortable, but would not immediately get to what had caused him to have second thoughts. Dwek continued to speak calmly, as if talking Khalil down off a ledge. “No one’s forcing the guy. If he doesn’t want to do anything he doesn’t have to,” he said. “The guy’s a little crazy, I guess.”

Khalil finally told him about the Christmas card coming back. “I don’t know what that means.”

Dwek tried to casually dismiss it. It was just something with the mail, he said. “The post office screwed up. I don’t know what that means. He’s crazy.”

In fact, it had been a mail problem. When Jaslow addressed the envelope, he had put down the wrong floor. On the other end of the line, Khalil finally agreed Jaslow could not possibly be right about Dwek being wired. “I know you’re not,” he said as the conversation was captured in its entirety by the FBI.

Dwek himself was also jeopardizing the case over and over. He veered so often off the script that to many he was like a loose cannon. At one point, he told Khalil on the phone that he could not make some meeting because he had to go to Boston to meet with ExxonMobil executives.

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