7 years after the investigation of the "Israel Beiteinu" case began, the court will rule on the matter of the former deputy minister accused of bribery and money laundering • PSD will also be given regarding Rami Cohen
Kirschenbaum at a hearing in the Tel Aviv District Court (archive)
Photo:
Joshua Joseph
The bribery case in "Israel Beiteinu":
Tel Aviv District Court Judge Yaron Levy will tomorrow (Thursday) give the verdict in the case of former Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirschenbaum and former director general of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Rami Cohen, in case 242.
As part of the case, whose investigation began seven years ago in December 2014, indictments were filed against 19 defendants, with 17 of them already convicted.
The indictment attributes to Kirschenbaum, the former deputy interior minister and one of the former prominent figures in the Yisrael Beiteinu party, offenses of taking bribes, bribery, money laundering, use of fraudulent deception and cunning in the corporation and intent to evade tax.
Most of the counts, including bribery and money laundering, involve multiple offenses.
Kirschenbaum was one of the women closest to the party's chairman Avigdor Lieberman, served as the party's secretary general from 2003 to 2014, MK and deputy interior minister from 2014-2009. As part of her duties, she had faith in the party's coalition funds.
According to the indictment, since 2006 Faina Kirschenbaum has acted "systematically and deliberately" (the language of the indictment) to commit a series of offenses while taking advantage of her public role, the effect that stems from her status and especially its impact on the state budget, for her family. Her party and those close to her.
According to the indictment, she asked, spurred and even demanded that public employees, public bodies, directors of associations and private individuals work with her to advance her goals and hide them.
In addition, the indictment details a complex mechanism whose purpose was to take public funding and make it for the personal use of the defendants, who used the coalition funds transfer system to divert funds to associations and organizations who in return were required to pay bribes or benefits to the defendants themselves or their associates.
The consideration was paid in funds, products or other benefits, such as providing free services, financing trips abroad, seemingly employing associates and transferring funds to the Yisrael Beiteinu party in a variety of ways. Thus, in one case, the benefit was paid in the form of establishing a cigarette import company. Which was registered in the name of Faina Kirschenbaum's daughter, with the aim of concealing her involvement in the case.
Rami Cohen, former director general of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, whose verdict will also be handed down tomorrow, provided business consulting through Barak Reut Investments, which he owns; Cohen served as director general of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development from 2013-2014 and was one of the founders of the Yisrael Beiteinu party. .
He was charged with multiple offenses of giving and taking bribes, money laundering, taking action on prohibited property, forgery of a document in aggravated circumstances, false registration in corporation documents, obstruction of justice, receiving anything by fraud and threats.
This is one of the largest corruption investigations investigated by the JHA (National Fraud Investigation Unit) since its inception. The open investigation began in December 2014, when suspects were interrogated with a warning, in which about 1,100 confessions were collected, about 30,000 intercepted conversations were captured. About 190 telephones, computers and tablets and 160 boxes of investigative materials were collected.
The case was transferred to the State Attorney's Office in October 2015, returned to the police for completion and returned to the State Attorney's Office in September 2016. The hearing letters were sent to the main suspects in September 2016 and the hearings were held between February and June 2017.
In the case, 10 indictments have been filed against 19 defendants so far.
