The police and the tax authority will recommend within the coming days that Shas head and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) be indicted following a multiyear investigation, Maariv reports.
According to the report, police want Deri to stand trial for tax violations. However, Deri will not face indictments in the most serious investigations against him, which included suspicion of a series of corruption and bribery offenses. Another charge which he was expected to be indicted for was money laundering.
If police recommend that Deri be indicated, Attorney General Avichai Mandeblit must decide whether to move forward and bring the case to trial
Police have been probing Deri and his wife for alleged money laundering, fraud, breach of trust, theft, fraudulent registration, numerous tax offenses, and corruption since 2016. The investigation is a combined effort of police, the tax authorities, and the Justice Ministry's anti-money laundering authority.
Suspicions were aroused in 2016, after reports surfaced of Deri owning multiple homes which were left unreported to tax authorities, including a villa in Moshav Safsufa that is allegedly worth millions.
Deri, who was convicted in 1999 of bribery and fraud for crimes committed while serving as Interior Minister more than two decades ago, served 22 months in prison and was released in 2002. He returned to the Knesset in 2013 and led the Shas party in the 2015 elections.