14 aug 2019
Welfare Minister Haim Katz
Welfare minister accused of advancing legislation to benefit his friend, businessman Mordechai Ben-Ari who is also being charged; Katz mulls seeking immunity from Knesset instead of resigning to stand trial
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Wednesday informed Welfare Minister Haim Katz' lawyers that he has decided to indict him for alleged fraud and breach of trust.
According to Mandelblit, Katz helped his friend - businessman Mordechai Ben-Ari – by promoting legislation in the Knesset, which is both in contravention of the law and a clear conflict of interest.
More serious charges of bribery against Katz, a Likud lawmaker, were dropped following his pre-indictment hearing.
Mandelblit believes that Katz should resign over the decision to indict him, but the minister is considering asking the Knesset for immunity.
Ben-Ari will also be charged with fraud and breach of trust, as wekk as insider trading.
An experienced trader, Ben-Ari has since 1999 has served as an economic advisor to Equital, a public holding company prominent in the Israeli market, which controls various companies including Airport City, JOEL (Jerusalem Oil Exploration Ltd) and Isramco.
Welfare minister accused of advancing legislation to benefit his friend, businessman Mordechai Ben-Ari who is also being charged; Katz mulls seeking immunity from Knesset instead of resigning to stand trial
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Wednesday informed Welfare Minister Haim Katz' lawyers that he has decided to indict him for alleged fraud and breach of trust.
According to Mandelblit, Katz helped his friend - businessman Mordechai Ben-Ari – by promoting legislation in the Knesset, which is both in contravention of the law and a clear conflict of interest.
More serious charges of bribery against Katz, a Likud lawmaker, were dropped following his pre-indictment hearing.
Mandelblit believes that Katz should resign over the decision to indict him, but the minister is considering asking the Knesset for immunity.
Ben-Ari will also be charged with fraud and breach of trust, as wekk as insider trading.
An experienced trader, Ben-Ari has since 1999 has served as an economic advisor to Equital, a public holding company prominent in the Israeli market, which controls various companies including Airport City, JOEL (Jerusalem Oil Exploration Ltd) and Isramco.
Mordechai Ben-Ari
His role included providing financial advice to the Equital group, managing the money and financial portfolio of the group's companies, raising capital, and so on.
By virtue of this role, Ben-Ari was engaged in securities trading using the group's accounts. He also managed his own private equity portfolio, which included bond holdings among other things.
According to the indictment, Katz and Ben-Ari developed a close friendship over the years, while at the same time the two shared mutual economic interests.
The indictment states that in 2010, at Ben-Ari's initiative, Katz submitted a private member's bill known as Amendment 44 to the Securities Law.
Katz allegedly knew that Ben-Ari had significant economic interest in promoting the bill, both due to his role in the Equital group and for his own person portfolio but decided to advance the legislation anyway.
During this period, Equital held debentures (long-term loans) of companies facing major difficulties. Amendment 44 could have yielded a significant economic advantage for Equital, Ben-Ari and Katz - who also held corporate bonds.
His role included providing financial advice to the Equital group, managing the money and financial portfolio of the group's companies, raising capital, and so on.
By virtue of this role, Ben-Ari was engaged in securities trading using the group's accounts. He also managed his own private equity portfolio, which included bond holdings among other things.
According to the indictment, Katz and Ben-Ari developed a close friendship over the years, while at the same time the two shared mutual economic interests.
The indictment states that in 2010, at Ben-Ari's initiative, Katz submitted a private member's bill known as Amendment 44 to the Securities Law.
Katz allegedly knew that Ben-Ari had significant economic interest in promoting the bill, both due to his role in the Equital group and for his own person portfolio but decided to advance the legislation anyway.
During this period, Equital held debentures (long-term loans) of companies facing major difficulties. Amendment 44 could have yielded a significant economic advantage for Equital, Ben-Ari and Katz - who also held corporate bonds.
13 aug 2019
Parents arrested after police break into Lod apartment and discover young child on her own with hands and feet tied; mother and father left girl while they took other three children to beach
The father of a five-year-old girl found alone and tied up in the bathroom of her home in Lod denied Tuesday that he had any responsibility for the incident.
Police officers who broke into an apartment in the central city on Monday evening were met with a heartbreaking sight – the crying five-year-old girl tied up in the shower stall in the bathroom and left entirely alone.
Her parents, who are in their 30s and 40s were arrested. They were to appear at Rishon Lezion Magistrate's Court on Tuesday for a remand extension hearing.
The father told police that he had not tied her up and denied that she had been neglected, Ynet has learned.
He said he and his wife took their three other children to the beach and left the girl who was sleeping at home.
"At a certain point," the father said, "a friend called me to say he could hear her crying. I came home and saw the police."
The police said Monday that officers were dispatched to the address after neighbors reported hearing crying come from the apartment.
When the officers entered the home, they discovered the girl bound and alone. They had to cut the ropes binding her from her body.
She was in poor health and suffering from neglect, the police said.
The girl was taken to the nearby Assaf Harofeh Medical Center for treatment.
The girl does not have an Israeli identity numbner, making it likely that she was born in Palestinian Authority-controlled territory.
The lawyers for the parents, Shukri Abu Tabiq and Hai Uzan, said that their clients deny the accusations regarding their child.
"They say that when they left the home, the girl was sleeping in her room and two hours later a family friend called them to say he heard cries coming from the apartment," the lawyers said.
"The police who arrived at the apartment found the girl tied up with rope. There is no evidence that they are involved in what they have been accused of. They are normative parents who are incapable of doing the things alleged. The court must free them."
According to studies conducted in Israel, one in five children in the country has been abused by an adult. According to the statistical yearbook of the Israel National Council for the Child, the number of children at risk has doubled since 2000, reaching approximately 444,000 in early 2017.
In 2017, social workers received approximately 48,000 new reports of at-risk minors, 72% of involving children harmed by a member of the family.
The NCC said: "The shocking case of the severely neglected five-year-old girl is not isolated. In Israel, there are too many children going through hell at home or in their immediate environs, many of whom cannot or are too afraid to ask for help.
"Preventing child abuse should be a national mission. The State of Israel must ensure that child protection systems operate optimally and provide child welfare services with the necessary resources and standards required by the scope of the phenomenon.
"The best way to help abused children is to prevent harm or its continuation, through vigilance and social responsibility both by professionals and the public at large. With people keeping their eyes and ears open and reporting incidents to the appropriate authorities, we can protect the children."
The father of a five-year-old girl found alone and tied up in the bathroom of her home in Lod denied Tuesday that he had any responsibility for the incident.
Police officers who broke into an apartment in the central city on Monday evening were met with a heartbreaking sight – the crying five-year-old girl tied up in the shower stall in the bathroom and left entirely alone.
Her parents, who are in their 30s and 40s were arrested. They were to appear at Rishon Lezion Magistrate's Court on Tuesday for a remand extension hearing.
The father told police that he had not tied her up and denied that she had been neglected, Ynet has learned.
He said he and his wife took their three other children to the beach and left the girl who was sleeping at home.
"At a certain point," the father said, "a friend called me to say he could hear her crying. I came home and saw the police."
The police said Monday that officers were dispatched to the address after neighbors reported hearing crying come from the apartment.
When the officers entered the home, they discovered the girl bound and alone. They had to cut the ropes binding her from her body.
She was in poor health and suffering from neglect, the police said.
The girl was taken to the nearby Assaf Harofeh Medical Center for treatment.
The girl does not have an Israeli identity numbner, making it likely that she was born in Palestinian Authority-controlled territory.
The lawyers for the parents, Shukri Abu Tabiq and Hai Uzan, said that their clients deny the accusations regarding their child.
"They say that when they left the home, the girl was sleeping in her room and two hours later a family friend called them to say he heard cries coming from the apartment," the lawyers said.
"The police who arrived at the apartment found the girl tied up with rope. There is no evidence that they are involved in what they have been accused of. They are normative parents who are incapable of doing the things alleged. The court must free them."
According to studies conducted in Israel, one in five children in the country has been abused by an adult. According to the statistical yearbook of the Israel National Council for the Child, the number of children at risk has doubled since 2000, reaching approximately 444,000 in early 2017.
In 2017, social workers received approximately 48,000 new reports of at-risk minors, 72% of involving children harmed by a member of the family.
The NCC said: "The shocking case of the severely neglected five-year-old girl is not isolated. In Israel, there are too many children going through hell at home or in their immediate environs, many of whom cannot or are too afraid to ask for help.
"Preventing child abuse should be a national mission. The State of Israel must ensure that child protection systems operate optimally and provide child welfare services with the necessary resources and standards required by the scope of the phenomenon.
"The best way to help abused children is to prevent harm or its continuation, through vigilance and social responsibility both by professionals and the public at large. With people keeping their eyes and ears open and reporting incidents to the appropriate authorities, we can protect the children."
12 aug 2019
Beny Steinmetz
The diamond-mining magnate and two associates could face up to a decade in prison over alleged payment of bribes linked to allocation of mining licences in West African nation
A Swiss prosecutor said on Monday he was seeking prison terms for Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz and two associates over the alleged payment of bribes linked to the allocation of mining licences in Guinea between 2005 and 2010.
Geneva prosecutor Claudio Mascotto said in a statement the three were accused of "having promised in 2005 and then paid or had bribes paid to one of the wives of former Guinean President Lansana Conte" so as to have mining rights in Guinea's Simandou region allocated to Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR).
BSGR walked away from Guinea's massive Simandou iron ore project as part of a settlement announced in February which ended a long-running dispute with the West African nation, the company and Guinea's government said at the time.
BSGR, which was not immediately available for comment on Monday, has always maintained it did nothing wrong. The two other defendants were not named in the Geneva prosecutor's statement and the judge has yet to set a trial date.
Guinea's mines minister, Abdoulaye Magassouba, told Reuters that the government was not involved in trying to prosecute Steinmetz, given February's agreement.
"We have signed specific agreements with Steinmetz and we will fully respect the terms of the agreement. It is not possible for a hostile action against BSGR to come from the government," he said.
Mascotto, who opened his investigation in 2013, said he was indicting the three suspects in Geneva, where some of the alleged $10 million in bribes had transited, for alleged corruption of Guinean public officials and forgery.
He is seeking prison terms of 2 to 10 years.
The trial in a criminal court is the city's first major international corruption case under Swiss federal law, sources close to the case said.
Development of Simandou - one of the world's biggest iron deposits, containing billions of tonnes of high-grade ore - has been hindered by years of legal wrangling as well as the $23 billion cost of the required infrastructure.
The diamond-mining magnate and two associates could face up to a decade in prison over alleged payment of bribes linked to allocation of mining licences in West African nation
A Swiss prosecutor said on Monday he was seeking prison terms for Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz and two associates over the alleged payment of bribes linked to the allocation of mining licences in Guinea between 2005 and 2010.
Geneva prosecutor Claudio Mascotto said in a statement the three were accused of "having promised in 2005 and then paid or had bribes paid to one of the wives of former Guinean President Lansana Conte" so as to have mining rights in Guinea's Simandou region allocated to Beny Steinmetz Group Resources (BSGR).
BSGR walked away from Guinea's massive Simandou iron ore project as part of a settlement announced in February which ended a long-running dispute with the West African nation, the company and Guinea's government said at the time.
BSGR, which was not immediately available for comment on Monday, has always maintained it did nothing wrong. The two other defendants were not named in the Geneva prosecutor's statement and the judge has yet to set a trial date.
Guinea's mines minister, Abdoulaye Magassouba, told Reuters that the government was not involved in trying to prosecute Steinmetz, given February's agreement.
"We have signed specific agreements with Steinmetz and we will fully respect the terms of the agreement. It is not possible for a hostile action against BSGR to come from the government," he said.
Mascotto, who opened his investigation in 2013, said he was indicting the three suspects in Geneva, where some of the alleged $10 million in bribes had transited, for alleged corruption of Guinean public officials and forgery.
He is seeking prison terms of 2 to 10 years.
The trial in a criminal court is the city's first major international corruption case under Swiss federal law, sources close to the case said.
Development of Simandou - one of the world's biggest iron deposits, containing billions of tonnes of high-grade ore - has been hindered by years of legal wrangling as well as the $23 billion cost of the required infrastructure.
Police break into Lod apartment after neighbors report crying from inside; initial investigation suggests parents abandoned child, who also showed signs of neglect, but took three other children out with them; mother and father arrested, will appear in court Tuesday
Police officers who broke into an apartment in the central city of Lod on Monday evening were met with a heartbreaking sight – a crying five-year-old girl tied up in the bathroom and left entirely alone.
The police said officers were dispatched to the address after neighbors reported hearing crying come from the apartment.
When the officers entered the home, they discovered the girl bound and alone.
She was in poor health and suffering from neglect, the police said.
The girl was taken to the nearby Assaf Harofeh Medical Center for treatment.
An initial investigation showed that the girl's parents left the house with three other children, leaving the five-year-old alone.
The parents, who are in their 30s and 40s, were detained for questioning and the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.
The mother and father will appear in court Tuesday for a remand hearing.
Police officers who broke into an apartment in the central city of Lod on Monday evening were met with a heartbreaking sight – a crying five-year-old girl tied up in the bathroom and left entirely alone.
The police said officers were dispatched to the address after neighbors reported hearing crying come from the apartment.
When the officers entered the home, they discovered the girl bound and alone.
She was in poor health and suffering from neglect, the police said.
The girl was taken to the nearby Assaf Harofeh Medical Center for treatment.
An initial investigation showed that the girl's parents left the house with three other children, leaving the five-year-old alone.
The parents, who are in their 30s and 40s, were detained for questioning and the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.
The mother and father will appear in court Tuesday for a remand hearing.
Telegrass co-founder and CEO Amos Silver
New channel on Telegram messaging app pops up after Israel's serious crimes unit cracks down on predecessor Telegrass; one of founders vows never to stop selling cannabis via the internet 'until it is fully legalized'
A massive police crackdown earlier this year won't stop the online sale of marijuana in Israel, one of the operators of the new GetWeed channel on the instant messaging app Telegram told Ynet on Monday.
Police officers from the Lahav 433 serious crimes unit in March raided the homes of 42 suspects alleged to have a connection with the online drug-dealing network Telegrass, which operated as a channel on Telegram.
Potential buyers could contact individual sellers through a private chat faciliated by the channel and arrange their own drug purchases.
The head of the Telegrass network, Amos Dov Silver, was arrested at the same time in Ukraine and is currently under house arrest there.
One month later, the Cyber Unit at the State Prosecutor's Office indicted 27 people in the case.
The indictment accuses suspects of brokering the trafficking of dangerous drugs, trafficking dangerous drugs, drug offenses involving the corruption of minors, money laundering and more.
Despite the police crackdown, Telegrass is still going strong on Telegram and one of the alternative platforms - GetWeed - is also thriving. The name appears to be a riff on the popular cab-ordering app formerly known as GetTaxi.
A senior source from the platform told Ynet that GetWeed operates similarly to Telegrass, and will continue to run clandestinely until "there is full legalization of cannabis in Israel."
"We are almost the same as Telegrass in terms of idea and structure," he said. "We use very creative technologies in order to protect our staff and dealers' information."
New channel on Telegram messaging app pops up after Israel's serious crimes unit cracks down on predecessor Telegrass; one of founders vows never to stop selling cannabis via the internet 'until it is fully legalized'
A massive police crackdown earlier this year won't stop the online sale of marijuana in Israel, one of the operators of the new GetWeed channel on the instant messaging app Telegram told Ynet on Monday.
Police officers from the Lahav 433 serious crimes unit in March raided the homes of 42 suspects alleged to have a connection with the online drug-dealing network Telegrass, which operated as a channel on Telegram.
Potential buyers could contact individual sellers through a private chat faciliated by the channel and arrange their own drug purchases.
The head of the Telegrass network, Amos Dov Silver, was arrested at the same time in Ukraine and is currently under house arrest there.
One month later, the Cyber Unit at the State Prosecutor's Office indicted 27 people in the case.
The indictment accuses suspects of brokering the trafficking of dangerous drugs, trafficking dangerous drugs, drug offenses involving the corruption of minors, money laundering and more.
Despite the police crackdown, Telegrass is still going strong on Telegram and one of the alternative platforms - GetWeed - is also thriving. The name appears to be a riff on the popular cab-ordering app formerly known as GetTaxi.
A senior source from the platform told Ynet that GetWeed operates similarly to Telegrass, and will continue to run clandestinely until "there is full legalization of cannabis in Israel."
"We are almost the same as Telegrass in terms of idea and structure," he said. "We use very creative technologies in order to protect our staff and dealers' information."
A suspected member of Telegrass in court
"It is a kind of technology that is yet to be seen even on the world's biggest darknet websites," he said. "Let's say that if we went out with it (the technology) overtly and legally, we would have been raising tens of millions (of shekels)."
The source even provided details on the way in which the network operates.
"The dealers go through rigorous verification with their personal details and also have a convenient and easy-to-use review bot," he said.
"We currently have over 3,200 reviews on 140 verified dealers all across Israel and around 1,000 dealers are still waiting to be verified. Of course, this number grows daily."
Israel Police said in a statement that there was it would continue to target drug dealers in whatever format they operated.
"Israel Police sees the drug phenomenon as a dangerous and unacceptable social phenomenon, which could lead to criminal behavior, including severe cases of violence," the statement said.
"This is why the police vigorously enforces drug trafficking and distribution offenses through a variety of overt and covert actions in order to expose the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
"This is proactive enforcement focused on exposing drug offenses, whether committed on a street corner, at a border crossing or online."
"It is a kind of technology that is yet to be seen even on the world's biggest darknet websites," he said. "Let's say that if we went out with it (the technology) overtly and legally, we would have been raising tens of millions (of shekels)."
The source even provided details on the way in which the network operates.
"The dealers go through rigorous verification with their personal details and also have a convenient and easy-to-use review bot," he said.
"We currently have over 3,200 reviews on 140 verified dealers all across Israel and around 1,000 dealers are still waiting to be verified. Of course, this number grows daily."
Israel Police said in a statement that there was it would continue to target drug dealers in whatever format they operated.
"Israel Police sees the drug phenomenon as a dangerous and unacceptable social phenomenon, which could lead to criminal behavior, including severe cases of violence," the statement said.
"This is why the police vigorously enforces drug trafficking and distribution offenses through a variety of overt and covert actions in order to expose the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
"This is proactive enforcement focused on exposing drug offenses, whether committed on a street corner, at a border crossing or online."
