Israeli Jailed For U.S. Cash-For-Kidneys Racket

An Israeli man living in New York has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for buying kidneys illegally off Israelis and selling them on for $120,000 and more a time to U.S. recipients.

Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, 61, located individuals in Israel willing to be paid for their kidneys and arranged their travel and accommodation in the United States, where hospitals were given a fake story making it appear the kidneys had been donated.

"Rosenbaum admitted that he arranged for blood samples to be drawn from the potential recipients so that appropriate donors could be located," a statement from the New Jersey attorney's office said.

"He also acknowledged that he assisted each paid donor and recipient with fabricating cover stories in order to fool hospital employees into believing that the transplant in question was the product of a genuine donation."

Resenbaum was paid $120,000, $150,000 and $140,000 respectively for arranging three transplants on behalf of New Jersey residents that took place in December 2006, September 2008 and February 2009, the statement said.

He pleaded guilty last October to three counts of "acquiring, receiving, and transferring" organs to be used for human transplants and one count of conspiracy to do the same.

According to the prosecutor's office, "Rosenbaum's convictions are the first under the federal statute involving the black market sale of kidneys from paid donors."

In addition to the jail time, federal judge Anne Thompson sentenced Rosenbaum to three years of supervised release and a fine of $5,000 at a hearing on Wednesday in the northeastern U.S. city of Trenton.

She also ordered him to repay the $420,000 he earned from the black-market kidney sales.