Israeli businessman Dan Gertler has been fined NIS 8,000 by the Ben Gurion Airport customs authority for not reporting cash that he brought into the country. The grandson of diamond exchange founder Moshe Schnitzer, Gertler, 40, owns diamond and copper mines in the Congo through Dan Gertler International Group (DGI). He also heads the family's Fleurette Group registered in Gibraltar.
Gertler flew in to Ben Gurion Airport on his private plane together with five other passengers. Each of the six passengers contained an identical plain brown envelope containing $20,000. The authorities believed there was an attempt to circumvent the Israeli law requiring the reporting all income of cash of more than NIS 100,000 by splitting up the money. In addition, Gertler and his assistant Yosef Rosenberg had $38,000 on their persons and Gertler admitted that the entire sum belonged to him.
A Tax Authority Committee decided to impose a small financial sanction on Gertler because the amount over NIS 100,000 was relatively small and he is a first time offender. The committee decided to take no action over the brown envelopes because there was not enough evidence to support the charge that the sum had been split up between the passengers.
One source close to the incident said, "It may sound like a story but there is no story here. Each person had a legitimate source for the money."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 17, 2013
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