Today, Attorney General Menachem (Meni) Mazuz filed an indictment in the Jerusalem District Court against former prime minister Ehud Olmert and the woman who was his bureau chief, Shula Zaken, in the Rishontours, Talansky, and Investment Center affairs.
Olmert is charged with fraudulent receiving in aggravated circumstances, fraud, breach of trust, false accounting, and fraudulent concealment of income. Zaken is charged with fraudulent receiving in aggravated circumstances, false accounting, fraud, breach of trust, and telephone tapping.
The State Attorney’s Office has requested that the case should be heard before a panel of three judges, preferably the judges who heard the pre-trial evidence of Morris (Moshe) Talansky.
Olmert’s press adviser Amir Dan said in response to the indictment, “After they have removed an incumbent prime minister from office, it is clear that the Attorney General and the State Attorney have no option, and never had any option, but to file an indictment against Olmert. The court, by contrast, is free of such extraneous considerations, and Olmert is therefore sure that, in the court, he will be able to prove his innocence once and for all.”
The indictment related to the period 2002-2006, when Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem and then a government minister. “During this period, the accused abused Olmert’s standing and high office for systematic and prolonged activity to derive financial benefit for Olmert, in various ways and from various sources. This activity was carried out, among other things, by defrauding public bodies and institutions, the state, and state officials.”
In the Rishontours affair, Olmert is accused of obtaining by fraud some $85,000, through being funded two or three times over by public bodies and the state for trips made while he held public office.
The second count includes the Talansky and Investment Center affairs. Olmert and Zaken are accused of deriving personal financial benefit via Morris Talansky, a US resident. Olmert received large sums of money, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, from Talansky, some of it in cash in envelopes, and concealed the receipt of the money, failing to report it as required by law. Some of the cash was transferred to Olmert via Zaken. At the same time, according to the indictment, Olmert, in his official capacity, provided assistance to Talansky in the latter’s private business affairs vis-à-vis business people in Israel and overseas.
In the Investment Center affair, Olmert is accused of assisting clients of Uri Messer, his former partner in a law practice, in obtaining government grants through the Investment Promotion Center of the Ministry of Industry and Trade when he was minister. Messer is alleged to have received sums of money from Talansky and others on Olmert’s behalf. Olmert is accused of being aware of the conflict of interests between his duty as minister and his deep personal obligation to Messer.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 30, 2009
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