The National Unit for Fraud Investigations, Lahav 433, has completed an extensive investigation that included a number of cases involving the operation of a network of corruption in the educational system in several cities throughout Israel.
Upon completion of the investigation, the police stated that more than 30 suspects were involved, including mayors, council heads and their deputies, public employees, and other positions of authority, along with contractors and businessmen.
Suspicions ranged across many fields and levels of education, from kindergarten to college, and include peripheral elements such as transportation and food service.
In mid-June last year, pursuant to an undercover investigation that lasted for several months,16 suspects were arrested and interrogated and messages from hundreds of people involved were collected. Financial instruments in the tens of millions of shekels we also seized as evidence.
The main body of the investigation centered on suspicions of unfairly retaining a contract year after year in exchange for cash kickbacks. Sub-cases were investigated, such as suspicions of bribery between contractors and the deputy head of the Arara Council in the Negev, the deputy head of the Be'er Ya'akov council, and others. Charges include tax fraud and money laundering, according to the evidence against each individual suspect. The investigation file will be transferred to the Central District Attorney's Office for review and a decision regarding if and how to prosecute.
Eyal Basarglik, who represents Noam Sasson, Deputy Chairman of the Be’er Yaakov Council, commented: "This case began with suspicions and a lot of noise about bribery, money laundering in the millions, fraud and breach of trust and theft by a licensee. The outrage of an innocent man who has been publicly accused - my client has been shouting his innocence for several months - cannot be described. The police recommend filing an indictment on the issue of fraud and breach of trust, an empty accusation. If even one brick in their tower of accusation is unstable, we will see it all brought tumbling down.”