A senior businessman in the economy, who owns a large beverage import company, was arrested today along with other company owners suspected of being connected to a criminal organization from the north, on suspicion of committing tax offenses and fraudulent offenses against the Ministry of Environmental Protection regarding the Deposit Law.
According to suspicions, the company he owns falsely reported to the Ministry of Environmental Protection the number of beverage containers it collected and sent for recycling, and tried to cover this up by falsifying invoices totaling hundreds of millions of shekels, which attested to alleged payment to companies that collected beverage containers for it, as well as through false declarations to customs.
In some cases, the false statements referred to containers exported to Greece, which the company claimed to carry beverage containers intended for recycling, but in fact they carried empty beverage containers that were then returned to Israel under the guise of importing to another company. In other cases, the false statements referred to imported containers whose declared destination was the Palestinian Authority, where the Deposit Law does not apply, but whose contents were actually sold in Israel.
Some of the funds found in the suspects' homes, photo: Police Spokesperson's Office
It is suspected that the company used these methods to collect deposit fees from consumers without bearing the costs of recycling and while harming the implementation of the Deposit Law, which is intended to protect the environment. The investigation also revealed suspicion of involvement of a criminal organization from the north in the fraudulent acts. The scope of the fraud is estimated at hundreds of millions of shekels.
Today's arrest follows a lengthy investigation conducted by a special investigation team that includes the Economic Crimes Unit at Lahav 433, together with Haifa Customs and VAT Investigations in cooperation with the Haifa Investigations Assessor, Intelligence of the Border Police Tactical Division and accompanied by the Tax Authority's Special Cases Department, the Accountant General's Division, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Civil Enforcement Authority.
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