Tel Aviv District Court filed its first indictment under the new Prohibition on Money Laundering Law (5670-2000). Under indictment: Hannah Maimon of Ness Ziona, who is accused to laundering $1 million in drug money.
According to the State, between 1998 and 2002, the accused was held dual citizenship for Israel and the US, and resided in the US for an unknown period of time in 2001. The accused is married to Zion Maimon, also a dual national of the US and Israel.
One of the couple's children, Eyal Maimon, was convicted in April 2001 of by the California courts of conspiracy to import and distribute at least 45 kilos of the drug Ecstasy to the US from Europe.
In July 1999, Zion Maimon and another son Eli opened an account at Bank Leumi's Lod branch, with the intention of concealing or disguising the source of the funds, the identity and whereabouts of the rights-holders to the funds, transactions and methods of transactions. Between August and December 1999, about $901,000 was deposited in the account.
The source of the funds was the criminal activity for which Eyal Maimon was convicted. Hannah Maimon had traveled to Israel from the US in December 1999, with the intention of hiding the source of the funds and the identity of the rights-holders to the funds.
Hannah Maimon opened an account at a Bank Hapoalim branch in Herzliya, where she transferred the $900,000 from Bank Leumi. After that, she opened an account at a First International Bank of Israel branch in Holon, where she transferred $100,000. The source of the funds was also Eyal Maimon's US criminal activity.
In February-March 2000, the accused transferred $400,000 from the account in Herzliya to the account in Holon, after which she transferred $200,000 to the Bank of New York, and from there, to her son Ophir in the US.
Prosecutor Adv. Ziv Ariely claimed that the accused knew the source of the funds were crimes committed by her son in the US, and her actions therefore constituted a violation of the Prohibition on Money Laundering Law.
The indictment further said that in October-November 2001, the accused transferred $19 million from her Rehovot account to a Citibank account in Los Angeles, with the intention of transferring the funds to Eyal's wife. According to the indictment, the accused knew the source of the funds were crimes committed by her son in the US, and therefore constituted a violation of the Prohibition on Money Laundering Law.
Defense attorney Adv. Gil-Ad Harish claimed in response that the funds owned by Hannah Maimon's son were profits made in his work as a broker on the US securities exchange. His client, he said, together with her husband, dealt in a million dollar construction and restaurant business, which generated large amounts of personal property, far larger than those appearing in the indictment.
According to Harish, the transferred funds, as described in the indictment, were savings of legitimate origin, and not laundered drug money.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on 12 June 2002