Rabbi, Two Others Are Indicted in Fraud Case : Crime: The charges include conspiracy to launder drug-tainted cash through a ‘holy network’ of accounts held by religious charities.

A rabbi, a financial consultant and a Lomita woman were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges of bank fraud, money laundering and other crimes said to involve a “holy network” of accounts held by religious charities.

The indictments allege that Rabbi Abraham Low told an undercover FBI agent that he could launder as much as $5 million a week through an overnight network of couriers who would ferry drug-tainted cash.

If convicted on the 20 counts filed against them, including conspiracy and possession of a forged security, the defendants could face decades in prison and millions of dollar in fines.

The three--Low, 42, Alan Weston, 52, and Sharlesetta Brown, 39, known as Charlie--were denied bail after their arrests Jan. 11. A magistrate is scheduled to set a trial date next week.

According to the indictments, the three defrauded Home Savings of America when Brown gave Weston a stolen and forged Bank of America cashier’s check for about $496,000.

Weston was then said in the indictments to have passed it along to Low, who deposited it in the bank account of his La Brea Avenue synagogue, Congregation Mogen Abraham, and immediately withdrew a similar amount in legitimate cashier’s checks.

When the original check proved to be phony, Low allegedly tried to hide the truth by saying he borrowed the money from Santa Monica Securities, a finance company that made an unsolicited loan offer through the mail.

In fact, there is no such company, prosecutors said, alleging that Weston prepared fake documents to back up Low’s story.

The government’s money laundering case rests heavily on the account of an undercover FBI agent known as Ronny, who authorities said was alerted by an informant then in the Orange County jail.

Ronny met with Weston and Low to work out the exchange of large amounts of drug money for diamonds, cash or cashier’s checks, according to the indictment.

First, there was a test transaction in which Ronny exchanged $10,000 in small bills, tainted by actual drug residue, with Low for clean money in denominations of $50 and $100. After Ronny was satisfied that Low could produce the clean money, Low allegedly told the agent that for a cut of 30%, laundering of up to $5 million a week could be arranged.

That money would be picked up at Los Angeles International Airport, on the departures deck to avoid drug-sniffing dogs who patrol the arrivals level. It would then be flown to New York, sold to diamond dealers and the proceeds wired to accounts in Europe, the agent was allegedly told.

Low was supposed to meet with Ronny to pick up $500,000 in cash on the day of the arrests, prosecutors said.

Sources said the rabbi had been in deep financial trouble for more than a year, having lost millions of his congregants’ money because of ill-timed real estate investments.

Weston was described in the indictments as a self-employed financial consultant. He and Brown, who has used at least five aliases, are accused in a similar scheme to defraud three banks of $1.5 million.