Police Detectives carried out a sting operation on Tuesday evening in two houses in the Arab city of Qalansawe located in Central Israel. It was suspected that two illegal money changing operations were taking place in the various houses. The illegal businesses were suspected of laundering checks, providing illegal loans, and changing foreign and domestic currencies.
Police were surprised to find large sums of cash in both houses. According to reports that came from the police, the money was hidden in very “creative” places such as the bathtub and inside window frames.
Some 720,000 NIS were found together with 30,000 NIS worth of foreign currency and another 405,000 NIS in various documents such as cheques.
According to a statement made after the search and seizure, police said that they believe two families were involved in the illegal change operations.
Police are continuing their investigation together with various other entities who work to prevent fraud and money-laundering.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
From the article it sounds like the main issues here are whether they were licensed, whether they reported their activities, etc, as opposed to something like counterfeiting money. Of course this is also bad, but I wonder how many in our communities conduct similar under-the-table businesses that are not fully licensed. In the US, how many day-cares function unlicensed? Even medicine gmach’s, which are common both in Israel and in the US, are certainly not sanctioned, and are illegal, but still go on. So, perhaps it would be better for YWN not to post this story, and avoid calling the kettle black?