Amazing details are emerging in the affair in which millions of shekels disappeared from the coffers of Tel Aviv Stock Exchange-listed TradeKal and Yozma Venture Capital Management.
“Globes” has learned that a preliminary examination by Adv. Avi Turgeman, who was appointed to check the two companies’ financial status, discovered that NIS 15 million is missing from the two companies. The money was transferred to A I Leket Media, controlled by Aharon Liloff's family. Liloff is a appliances dealer, and was an approved signatory of the two companies, even though he was not a party at interest in either of them.
Liloff is currently residing abroad and could not be reached for comment. Sources in TradeKal and Yozma could not say when he intends to return to Israel. Turgeman also disclosed that the two companies have other, unreported losses, totaling millions of shekels from deals with other concerns.
The figures apparently threaten the continued existence of the two companies, both of which recently lost much of their company values. TradeKal has a company value of only a few million dollars, and Yozma has an even lower value. Tradekal today announced the resignation of two directors, Esther Batiashvili and Chen Tal, after their life insurance policies were cancelled for non-payment of premiums.
Although TradeKal and Yozma are owned by different shareholders, for over a year now it has been possible to ascertain a common denominator between them. Both hold shares in Internet venture G.L. Ware, which was scheduled to merge with a company listed on a US stock exchange.
The two companies were supposed to earn capital gains of tens of millions of shekels each from the merger, but the Nasdaq collapse lead to the cancellation of the deal, and write-offs of millions of shekels, due to the ventures' reduced valuation.
The two companies have no significant business operations, and the identities of many of their main shareholders are unclear. Major shareholders in Yozma include David Sasson and Ben Zvi Zahavian. No single holder controls more than 5% of TradeKal equity, according to the company’s financial statements.
Aharon Liloff once held the controlling interest in Yozma, but at the time of the deals with A I Leket Media in 2000-2001, he was not, as far as is known, a party at interest based on his stake in either Yozma or TradeKal. He was an approved signatory in both companies, with the knowledge of their boards of directors, which creates some puzzlement.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 17 April 2001