Netanya Mayor Miriam Feirberg has had her remand extended for six days by the Rishon Lezion Magistrates Court after being arrested for suspected involvement in the alleged bribery affair in the municipality. The police has asked for 10 days.
Yesterday, it was revealed that Avraham Tshuva, the brother of Yitzhak Tshuva, is the contractor suspected of bribing senior officials in the Netanya Municipality; and Adv. Tsafrir Feirberg, the son of the mayor, has also been arrested for suspicion of accepting benefits. The police and the Tax Authority have also detained four additional suspects for questioning, including a senior Netanya Municipality official, two contractors and another suspect, affiliated with a municipality senior official. They have also called further people for questioning.
It is suspected that Feirberg and the other suspects took bribes to promote various real estate projects including the Corale building on Netanya's seafront promenade. Her former husband Eli Feirberg is suspected as acting as a go-between regarding the bribes.
The investigation, run by the Israel Police National Fraud Unit in cooperation with the Tax Authority's Central District Income Tax Investigations Unit, revolves around suspicions of bribery, fraud, money laundering and tax violations against several figures and relating to real estate projects in Netanya.
According to the suspicions, senior municipality officials and people from their close circle had acted to promote the interests of contractors and developers in the city, in exchange for bribery and benefits of various kinds, while the municipality officials and their affiliates had been subject to a conflict of interest, without reporting it; all the people involved have been suspected of a series of bribery, fraud, money laundering and tax violations.
Mirian Fierberg's attorney, Adv. Nati Simchony from the Herzog Fox & Neeman Law Firm said, "Mrs. Fierberg has been Netanya's mayor for 18 years and has served in various positions in the municipality for four decades. Mrs. Fierberg has always acted with fairness and integrity, with no fault in her conduct. This - she is certain - will the outcome in this case in well. Feirberg respects the law enforcement authorities and will cooperate with investigators in order to reveal the truth."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 8, 2016
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