Gal Hirsch and his three partners are suspected of millions of shekels from the Georgia-era tax period in 2009-2007 • Suspected bribes were stolen • Hirsch's lawyers: "He is determined to fight for his justice"

The State Attorney's Office on Tuesday announced an indictment against Brigadier General Gal Gal Hirsch, for millions of NIS tax offenses committed between 2007 and 2009. Along with Hirsch, you have been tried for the same offenses, including Michael Benjamini, Yanniv Adam and Oded Shaknai, who is also suspected of receiving fraudulently under aggravated circumstances.

Gal Hirsch: "Want to be Minister of Public Security"

According to the suspicions, from 2009-2007, Hirsch and his three partners were engaged in service to the Department of Defense in Georgia and elsewhere as part of several companies they controlled. During that time, he worked with the Defense Department in Georgia, inter alia, on security consulting, military training and brokerage in military equipment sales. 

According to the State Prosecutor's Office, Georgia's operations have grown revenue of NIS 40 million, with Hirsch and the other suspects creating a set of companies, both in Israel and abroad, designed to help them raise revenue from the tax authorities. 

Gal Hirsch in the morning after being appointed Commissioner

According to the suspicion filed by the State Attorney's Office and Taxation, these are the suspicions for which the suspects are being tried:

Encouraged Shachnai: In 2009-2007, he did not report personal income in the amount of less than NIS 19.5 million. As part of his fraudulent activities towards tax authorities, the personal income of the appraiser was transferred to his personal accounts at various banks around the world, including personal accounts in Georgia, the island of Jersey and Switzerland, for tax evasion. Likewise, a pacemaker used bank accounts in Switzerland on the oil of foreign companies to maintain his personal income and to distribute income among the partners, including the additional suspects, without providing any service in Georgia operations. Shachnai did not report in his capital statement about his holdings in foreign companies and his overseas property, nor did he report in his annual reports to the Tax Authority on the existence of a partnership, which generated revenue from operations in Georgia.

In addition, a plaintiff is also suspected of fraudulently accepting aggravated circumstances following his misrepresentation with his lawyer in order to form the opinion of Fortis Bank in Guernsey regarding a foreign company account, which served as a platform for obtaining funds from Georgia's security operations for all partners. According to these statements, the source of the company's income is in various occupations that are not related to the security operations in Georgia, and the appraiser is the only beneficiary in the account. Shachnai did so after knowing that the bank was having difficulties transferring funds from security transactions, and to assume the bank's opinion, as stated. As a result, Fortis Bank did not act against the deposit, while allowing the bank to deposit and manage the foreign company account.

Gal Hirsch:   In 2008, he did not report personal income of less than NIS 6.1 million in his personal reports. As part of his fraudulent activities towards the tax authorities, Hirsch's personal income was transferred to his personal account in Switzerland and the account in Switzerland on behalf of a foreign company. The foreign company name was used by Hirsch for the purpose of retaining his personal income, without the company providing any service in Georgia operations. Hirsch did not report his capital statement to the foreign company, although he used it to maintain his income, nor did he report in the annual reports to the Tax Authority that Partnership, which generated revenue from operations in Georgia.

During 2009, Hirsch transferred NIS 3.3 million to Israel (out of the total revenues transferred to Switzerland). Instead of transferring the funds to his personal accounts, he transferred the said amount in three beats to Gal Hirsch Ltd. against invoices and receipts issued to the foreign company, although this company did not provide any service to Gal Hirsch Ltd., and although the money source was in the Hirsch operations in Georgia.

Attorneys Giora Aderet, Navot Tel-Tsur and Tal Shapiro: "Today, Brigadier General Gal (Hirsch) Gal Hersh was notified about a hearing in his case about five years after the investigation began. The suspicion relates to tax offenses, allegedly passed by Hirsch over a decade ago, in 2008-2007. There is no record of suspicions of bribery offenses in general and the offense of giving bribes to a foreign public employee in particular - the offenses that constituted the grounds for opening the investigation and preventing Hirsch's appointment as commissioner.

"As I recall, the investigation against Hirsch was opened shortly after the appointment by the Minister of Public Security to the Israel Police Commissioner. Hirsch argued from the outset that it was a scandalous investigation, with suspicions of no basis, whose sole purpose was to thwart his appointment to the commissioner - a nomination that was cynical in the eyes of a number of senior officials in the enforcement system. Indeed, suspicions of bribery, of which there was no basis in the first place, faded and faded during Or so, new suspicions arose, this time in the field of taxation, which also have no basis and are intended solely to justify the investigation and thwarting the appointment, after the bribery cases collapsed.

"It is a pity that the enforcement agencies did not have the courage to make the right and requested decision - the filing of the investigation case against Hirsch as a whole. And not for that reason.

"We claim that these are not at all criminal offenses, but at most, in a legitimate civil dispute that underlies tax planning in international business abroad, which can and should be ascertained - as is the case in such cases - in a civil proceeding. As the letter of suspicion itself shows, all the funds to which Gal Hirsch was entitled went by him to Israel for a tax invoice and were paid full tax for them in 2009, so that even for this reason there was no room to summon Mr. Hirsch to the hearing. Gal Hirsch is determined to fight for his righteousness and he will take all the measures at his disposal in this regard. "