Try to replace the name “Olmert” with any leader in the Iranian regime. The truth will still be the same:
Olmert suspected of defrauding state, agencies of funds used for trips abroad
By Jonathan Lis, Tomer Zarchin and Ofra Edelman, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies
Israel Police and the Justice Ministry released a joint statement Friday saying that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is suspected of asking a number of different public organizations, and the state, to pay for the same trips abroad. The money was then allegedly used for family holidays.
“The prime minister was asked to give his account about suspicions of serious fraud and other offenses,” said the police and the ministry joint statement, following a third round of questioning of Olmert in an ongoing corruption investigation.
The statement says that the latest suspicions pertain to Olmert’s stint as Jerusalem mayor and his time as minister of industry and trade, during which he allegedly asked for and received the money from organizations primarily in Israel and primarily involved in public activity.
According to the suspicions, olmert’s travel agency, Rishon Tours, allegedly sent an invoices to each organization who gave money for the same flights, as though each had been the only contributor.
Each body then had its own receipt that it had funded the trip, and the surplus money – apparently a substantial amount – was allegedly deposited in a private bank account in Olmert’s name, which was handled by the same travel agency. The suspicion is that these funds were then used to pay for private trips abroad for Olmert and his family.
Among the agencies which allegedly funded Olmert’s trips are AKIM, a charity geared towards aiding mentally disabled children; ALEH, a group that cares for physically challenged children; Yad Vashem; the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and American Friends of the IDF.
Police sources say Olmert told investigators that his family’s trips were funded through the use of flight credits, or points, that were accrued and credited to him by the various airlines. Yet, police counter that Olmert did not accumulate enough points to cover the cost of all his family’s trips during this time. Police say the Olmert family frequently used double invoices to fund their trips abroad.
The statement released by the prosecution and the police also said that almost four weeks ago Attorney General Menachem Mazuz approved a widening of the criminal investigation against the premier for receiving illegal funds. The expansion of the investigation focused on new suspicions that were raised in the initial investigation – suspicions which related to Olmert’s trips abroad in recent years.
Even though Mazuz gave police the go-ahead to question Olmert in connection with other outstanding cases about one month ago, the report’s publication was postponed until Friday’s questioning in order to prevent causing harm to the investigation by making the new suspicions public since Olmert had not yet given them his version.
Olmert is also suspected of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Jewish-American millionaire Morris Talansky over a 15-year period.
The Prime Minister’s Office said following the interview Friday that “the earth did not shake and the sky did not fall,” alluding to indications that the current round of questioning would be harsher than the last.
“Prime Minister Olmert is convinced that he is innocent of any wrongdoing and firmly believes that as this investigation continues, that innocence will become apparent to all,” the prime minister’s spokesman, Mark Regev, said.
Regev wouldn’t comment on the substance of the new suspicions.
Most of the questions were standard and pertained to business Olmert conducted abroad and in his posts as trade minister and Jerusalem mayor, the PMO said in a statement.
The questioning comes amid heightened wrangling between the police and Olmert’s associates. A police source said Thursday that the allegations are extremely serious and that an ordinary citizen would have been arrested by now had such accusations been leveled.
Police on Friday also questioned Olmert’s former bureau chief, Shula Zaken, in the offices of the national fraud unit in Bat-Yam. The session was a relatively short one which lasted just 30 minutes. Zaken, who was responsible for organizing Olmert’s trips abroad during his tenure as a government minister, reportedly upheld her right to remain silent during the interrogation.
Olmert’s associates accused the police Thursday of turning the case into a “personal campaign” against the prime minister, suggesting that Olmert would not be treated fairly during the interview.
Law enforcement sources said that had Olmert not been prime minister, he would have been arrested long ago. “Anyone else would have been arrested had similar suspicions been raised against him. Unlike any other suspect, Olmert is getting privileged treatment. He is setting the date and duration of the questioning,” a source said.
Olmert’s media adviser Amir Dan said that “it’s time the police stopped their tendentious leaks. When the police leak, its called ‘the public’s right to know,’ but when a suspect tries to defend himself he is accused of damaging the rule of law.”
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