OAN Staff Abril Elfi
11:31 AM – Wednesday, September 25, 2024
A former New York judge and prosecutor has allegedly shot himself during a shootout with the FBI in a bust for bribery and corruption charges.
Advertisement
On Tuesday, Stewart Rosenwasser, who has been embroiled in a sordid federal bribery scandal, had a shootout with FBI agents who showed up at his home before turning the gun on himself.
The FBI said in a statement that it is reviewing the incident at the Campbell Hall home and that it is being investigated by the Inspection Division, as is customary in agent-involved shootings.
“As this is an ongoing matter, we have no further details to provide,” the statement said.
The incident came just one day after Rosenwasser was indicted by a grand jury for allegedly taking $63,000 in payoffs to rig a case of a friend.
The 43-page indictment alleges that Rosenwasser and millionaire businessman Mout’z Soudani conspired to build a case against Soudani’s sister and nephew in order to recover the allegedly stolen money.
“Any progress I am anxious thanks,” Soudani, who was also named in the indictment, texted Rosenwasser on November 18th, 2022, the document said.
“Waiting to talk to the investigator,” the prosecutor allegedly replied. “Should know something today.
“Believe me. I’m putting maximum effort into this,” he added, according to the document. “We will utilize all available assets.”
Federal prosecutors said that both Rosenwasser and Soudani then tried to hide their exchanges with the former prosecutor texting his cohort on January 23rd, 2023, “We must stop creating test [sic] messages. Period.”
The indictment also stated that the plot targeted Martin Soudani and his mother, Eman Soudani, who were allegedly involved in stealing $1.6 million from Mout’z Soudani.
On March 8th of 2023, Rosenwasser charged Mout’z’s relatives with grand larceny for allegedly stealing his money and had arrest warrants issued.
When they appeared in court, defense lawyers requested that Rosenwasser recuse himself from prosecuting the case because he previously represented Mout’z Soudani in the 1990s, creating a conflict of interest.
Rosenwasser denied the claim and stayed on the case.
However, by June 2023, the DA’s office had caught on, and Rosenwasser was replaced on the case, according to the indictment.
By March 2024, the case against Mout’z Soudani’s sister had been dropped, and his nephew agreed to plead guilty to grand larceny in the embezzlement case in exchange for a one- to seven-year prison term.
Martin Soudani and Eman Soudani later filed a $22.5 million lawsuit stating that the cases against them were tainted.
Court filings stated that the alleged bribery scheme “may present the most blatant example of prosecutorial corruption and fraud in the annals of New York case law.”
Meanwhile, Rosenwasser resigned from the DAs office earlier this year as the investigation intensified — ending with this week’s indictment.
Jason Rosenwasser, the former judge’s son, asked for privacy for his family but casted doubt on the reports that his father committed suicide.
“The only thing I feel compelled to point out is that the local news headlines are reporting that my father fatally shot himself while also reporting in the same article that the FBI field office issued a statement calling it an agent-involved shooting,” he wrote.
Reports stated that the federal indictment, which names Rosenwasser and Mout’z Soudani, charges the two men with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and honest services wire fraud.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisements below