Brooklyn man pleads guilty to brokering kidney

A Brooklyn man has pleaded guilty to brokering the sale of black-market organs in what prosecutors say is the first ever federal conviction for illegally selling human kidneys for profit.

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum pleaded guilty in a Trenton federal courtroom Thursday to brokering three illegal kidney transplants for New Jersey-based customers in exchange for payments of $120,000 or more.

Prosecutors say Rosenbaum would buy organs from vulnerable people in Israel for $10,000 and sell them to desperate patients.
The 60-year-old Rosenbaum was arrested in July 2009 in New Jersey’s largest ever corruption sting that netted 46 defendants.

Rosenbaum was caught up in the case by an undercover government cooperator posing as a crooked businessman looking to buy a kidney for a sick relative.