News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Rabbi David Yosef, the son of Shas party spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, resisted a bribe offered by state's witness Solomon Dwek in the American investigation that resulted in the arrest of 44 people on charges of bribery or money laundering last week, according to a report by News One on Sunday.

The report says that Dwek came to the younger Rabbi Yosef and offered to cash $25,000 for him in exchange for a percentage of the money, claiming he had nothing to eat and that the rabbi was obligated to save him. The rabbi was careful enough to refuse and say he did not deal in such matters. The attempted transaction was recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Dwek, a real-estate developer, religious-school head and philanthropist from Ocean Township, was charged with defrauding PNC bank out of $25 million in 2006. The FBI used him to make contact with the politicians and rabbis from New York and New Jersey last week.