The criminal investigation against Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is running into difficulties and will not lead to a charge sheet any time soon, according to sources quoted Friday by the Hebrew-language newspaper Ha’aretz. Police grilled Lieberman for the fourth time Thursday. The interrogation by the police’s National Unit for Fraud Investigations lasted eight hours and was not reported to the public until after it ended.
Lieberman is under investigation on suspicion of bribery, breach of trust, fraud and money laundering. According to the report in the leftist daily, the investigators have been “running into difficulties in the investigation.”
A final decision on whether to file charges against the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home) party chairman is "not expected soon," the paper said.
"The version Lieberman has presented in his interrogations, which is supported by the other people who were investigated in the case, makes it very difficult for the police to complete the investigation at the previously planned target date," the report added.
The investigation began in 2006, and centers on suspicions that Lieberman received bribes from business owners in exchange for his political assistance. The business owners allegedly transferred the bribe money into a bank account belonging to Lieberman’s daughter Michal and to a company registered on her name.
The company – ML-1 – was created in 2004, when Michal was 21 years old. It made more than NIS 7 million in three years, for “business consultancy” services rendered overseas. Her father drew a salary of NIS 600,000 from the company in its first year of operation, according to this report.
Received NIS 850,000
Lieberman told investigators that he introduced his daughter to businessmen and mentored her when he was not serving in any political office. When he was elected to the Knesset, she took over the company, he said. Lieberman said that any questions about financial impropriety should be directed at the people who run ML-1 and the other companies allegedly involved, and not to him.
The other people interrogated have not said anything that would contradict Lieberman’s version.
Regarding NIS 850,000 that Lieberman received for “retirement benefits” and for unused vacation days in 2006 and 2007, when he was already a Knesset Member, the minister said that his contract with the company made him eligible for the payments, and that he was being paid for work that he carried out before he was elected.
Pre-Election Leaks
Police and the Attorney General leaked news of the investigation against Lieberman just two weeks before the general election in February. Just one day before the election, the Attorney General estimated that a charge sheet would be filed against Lieberman soon. These leaks were widely perceived as intentional attempts by the police and prosecution – which are dominated by the left wing – to damage Lieberman’s showing in the election.
Pollsters and reporters estimated at the time, however, that the efforts had backfired, and that the heavy-handed attempts to turn public opinion against Lieberman had only made him more popular.
Lieberman has been under investigation for various charges for more than a decade and has charged that the police and government prosecutors keep coming up with additional evidence as a ploy to prevent him from increasing his political power.
