International model Bar Refaeli began nine month community service in Israel today for tax evasion while her mother Tzipi Refaeli began a 16-month prison sentence. The mother and daughter were convicted for tax evasion in a plea bargain that was agreed last July and approved last week by the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court.
Bar Refaeli reported to Bet Noam in Kiryat Ono this morning where she will perform her community service assisting people with disabilities. She will also pay a NIS 2.5 million fine and received a suspended 9-month prison sentence. Tzipi Refaeli began her prison sentence this morning in Neve Tirtzah prison in Ramla. She will also pay a NIS 2.5 million fine.
The mother and daughter pleaded guilty to tax evasion for money earned by Bar Refaeli overseas between 2009 and 2012 as well as income and benefits that were not reported to the tax authorities during that period.
Bar Refaeli was first arrested by the Israel Tax Authority in 2015 and at first investigations revolved around whether she was residing in Israel or abroad during the period 2009-2012. Refaeli claimed that she left Israel in 2007 to pursue her international modelling career and that until 2013 when she claimed to return to Israel she was living in the US with her partner, the Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio. But the Israel Tax Authority was able to prove that she spent more than half of her time in Israel in each of the years 2009-2012 thus defrauding the country out of the tax on the income that she had earned.
The case became a criminal investigation in late 2015 when Tzipi Refaeli was arrested and charged with concealing tens of millions of shekels of her daughter's income between 2009 and 2012.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 21, 2020
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