p>Maccabi Sick Fund GM, Rafi Rotter, today announced his resignation
after being convicted at the Tel-Aviv Magistrates Court of tax and
managerial offences in the Procardia affair. Following Rotter's
resignation, the Maccabi management will convene this evening, to
appoint a substitute general manager for the fund.
The Maccabi Sick Fund, the Fund's general manager, the
Procardia Cardiological Institute and its manager, Yisrael Rotem, were
convicted today (Thursday) of the offences of the use of fraud,
cunning and guile under Section 220 of the Income Tax Ordinance.
Rotter and Rotem were convicted of these offences after admitting to
them as part of a plea bargain.
The hearing focussed primarily on the question of whether offences
had been committed when, in late 1987, Maccabi gave the Procardia
company a $4 million loan for the acquisition of the Basel Hotel in
Tel-Aviv.
Half the shares of Procardia belong to Maccabi and the balance of
the shares are held by private investors. The prosecutor stated in
the indictment, in this context, that "both parties derived significant
benefits, accruing to each one of them separately, from the crooked
combination they jointly put together".
The judge sharply criticized Rotter's behaviour in all matters
pertaining to the Maccabi-Procardia transaction.