The German government has decided to defer the signature on the memorandum of understanding for completing the sale of three nuclear-capable submarines to Israel, the National Security Council stated today. Walla! News reports that the memorandum on the billion dollar deal was due to be signed next week, but because of the criminal investigation into allegations of corruption in the award of the contract to ThyssenKrupp, the signing has been indefinitely postponed.
Late last month, "Der Spiegel" reported that the German National Security Council had approved the sale of the submarines. According to the report, the German council's decision states that if corruption is proved in the investigations being conducted in Israel and in Germany, the German government will have the right to cancel the contract completely.
The affair began with the revelation that the Israeli representative of ThyssenKrupp hired the services of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cousin and personal attorney David Shimron. Businessman Michael (Miki) Ganor, who was the go-between for ThyssenKrupp in the submarine procurement deal and is suspected of corruption, is now in talks with the State Attorney's Office about becoming a state's witness in the affair, dubbed "Case 3000", which, besides Ganor and Shimron, also involves former deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council Avriel Bar-Yosef, who wrote the opinion supporting ThyssenKrupp's bid, and former commander of the Israel Navy Eliezer Marom.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 18, 2017
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