The investigation into the affair of the Israel Navy's purchase of submarines from ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems GmbH has been stepped up. In a joint investigation by Israel Police, the Israel Tax Authority, the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority, supervised by the Economic Department of the State Attorney's Office, six suspects were detained for questioning today. They are being questioned under caution concerning allegations of bribery and fraudulent, and taxation and money laundering offences, in the affair known as "File 3000" arising from the purchase of submarines from Germany.
At the time of the events in the case, some of the suspects were public servants, while others were in the private sector. Among the suspects is an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Two weeks ago, Germany's National Security Council approved the deal to sell three nuclear-capable submarines to Israel, Der Spiegel reported. The $1.5 billion deal was approved under the shadow of allegations of corruption, after it was revealed that the Israeli subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp hired Benjamin Nethayahu's personal attorney David Shimron to represent it. The allegation is that Shimron had a conflict of interests in representing Michael Ganor, ThyssenKrupp's representative in Israel. After at first dismissing the allegations, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit eventually decided on a criminal investigation into the affair.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 10, 2017
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017