Sources associated with Malibu Israel, the controlling shareholder in Orlil, estimated at the end of the week that if the Ministry of Defence decides to revoke Orlil’s export license permanently, this will lead to the company’s closing down. Domestic market sales, they note, are not enough to keep the company going. They point out that the Ministry of Defence has revoked the company’s export license without placing any limit on the suspension period.
Malibu's management was commenting for the first time on the suspicion that Orlil sold to a far Eastern country, night-vision systems fitted with US-made components, that were to have been supplied to the IDF, while installing Russian-made components in IDF systems, in their stead.
"We have no idea why the Orlil share has plunged in recent months", Malibu Israel legal counsel Adv. Haim Samet told "Globes". "We wish to emphasise that the police has not questioned any member of the Orlil board or any of the controlling shareholders. We have seen no signs of an increase in sales or revenues due to the affair, which we define as the theft of systems from the IDF.
"In our assessment, the thefts were not the cause of the improvement in Orlil’s financial position. Rather, the improvement resulted from needful acts we took in the company for its rehabilitation and the increase of its profits".
In the next few days, the State Attorney's Office is expected to complete the indictments against Mark Blatt and Yaakov Pogotinsky. Malibu management sources confirmed that, as reported by "Globes", the Orlil systems were supplied to China.
Published by Israel's Business Arena June 6, 1999