Dankner accuses Ben-Moshe of money laundering

Nochi Dankner has filed "an urgent motion for the gathering of evidence".

Former IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) chairman Nochi Dankner today filed with Tel Aviv District Court Judge Eitan Orenstin "an urgent motion for the gathering of evidence". Dankner's attorneys, Shmuel Cassouto, Guy Noff, and Ronen Bar-On, asked the court to gather evidence from a Belgian consultant, Patrick De Pelsmacker, who is currently in Israel, who was allegedly involved in money laundering with Moti Ben-Moshe.

Earlier this week, Ben-Moshe convened a "special press conference". Although Ben-Moshe was not present, he sent his spokespersons and attorney who told the participants that Ben-Moshe's company Extra Holding GmbH had filed an urgent motion with Judge Orenstin. The motion declared that the document at the basis of the affidavits of De Pelsmacker, Belgian, Yehudah Barlev, and Black Cube partner Avi Yanus, which allege that Ben-Moshe committed tax offences, was a forgery, and that Ben-Moshe never met De Pelsmacker. Ben-Moshe therefore asked the Tel Aviv District Prosecutor to open a criminal investigation of Dankner, Barlev, and Yanus.

Dankner now claims that, given the serious circumstances created by that press conference, he asked De Pelsmacker to come to Israel "to confront Ben-Moshe's allegations. During a meeting, he reiterated and confirmed that everything mentioned in his affidavit is true." De Pelsmacker emphasized that he had met Ben-Moshe who asked him to open a network of shell companies for the purpose of transferring money, and offered him a percentage of the amounts transferred between the companies as a commission.

Dankner's lawyers said that they were not satisfied with this affidavit, and they therefore sent De Pelsmacker "to take a professional polygraph test this morning, and he was found to be speaking the truth. This means that Ben-Moshe misled in his statement of claim in a desperate attempt to besmirch the petitioners' (Dankner, Barlev, and Yanus E.P.)."

Dankner's present motion is another milestone in his investigation of Ben-Moshe and in his petition filed last month with the Tel Aviv District Court to hold a new hearing on the decision to transfer control of IDB from him to Ben-Moshe and his partner, Eduardo Elsztain. Dankner, who hired Black Cube and Barlev Investigative Auditing, claims that there are questions about the sources of Ben-Moshe's capital related to tax evasion and money laundering. He also claims that the financial structure of ExtraEnergie, the energy arm of Ben-Moshe's Extra Holding, is shaky.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 13, 2014

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014

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