New York ( CNN ) -- A New York religious leader pleaded guilty Monday to operating an illegal money business , officials said . Rabbi Saul Kassin , 89 , the chief rabbi of the Shaare Zion congregation in New York City , was arrested in an FBI-led corruption investigation in 2009 . Kassin admitted in federal court that he accepted bank checks in exchange for checks of a lesser value from a charity he operated and controlled , the U.S. Attorney 's Office in New Jersey said . On Monday , he pleaded guilty Monday to illegal cash transmission -- a lesser charge than the original complaint of money laundering , his lawyer Gerald Shargel said . Prosecutors said Kassin operated an unlicensed money transmitting business in his home from mid-2007 through 2008 . Using the bank account he controlled for the Magen Israel Society charitable organization , Kassin accepted checks , deducted a 10 % commission and then issued the difference to other organizations , authorities said . The rabbi was discovered as part of an FBI undercover investigation , `` Operation Bid Rig , '' which made news in July 2009 when 44 civic leaders and public officials were arrested on the same morning for public corruption and money laundering . Among the 15 arrested for money laundering , five were rabbis who were alleged to have laundered collectively more than $ 3 million , officials said at the time . Their alleged dealings stretched to Israel and Switzerland , authorities said . One high-profile arrest involved Peter Cammarano , the youngest mayor of Hoboken , New Jersey . He was arrested after just three weeks in office . Cammarano , who accepted $ 25,000 from a government witness who posed as a real estate developer , was sentenced to two years prison in May . Kassin , who has agreed to forfeit the $ 367,500 seized from the organization 's account in 2009 , may face up to five years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine . He is expected to be sentenced on July 12 .
Prosecutors say Kassin ran an unlicensed money transmitting business . He deducted a 10 % commission from payments he received , they say . He was indicted as part of a massive FBI corruption investigation .