A police investigation has led to the arrests of five suspects who allegedly fraudulently dealt in hekdesh properties and received funds amounting to NIS tens of millions.

A number of hours before a court hearing pertaining to Talmud Torah Eitz Chaim Betar Illit in Yerushalayim on Tuesday, police arrested five persons, including four trustees of the hekdesh for allegedly making fraudulent deals that netted them enormous sums, and by doing so, depleted the hekdesh coffer as they pocketed the profits.

The veteran Hekdesh, which was established before the establishment of the state in 1948, acquired dozens of properties during its decades of operation, with most being in the center of Jerusalem.

The police investigation raised suspicion against four trustees, who, over the past few years, had worked together with a real estate consultant, allegedly against the interests of the Hekdesh, and began to empty the Hekdesh of its assets by selling properties to various real estate companies and entrepreneurs. They are suspected of pocketing tens of millions of shekels.

There was also suspicion in the investigation that the suspects had given false affidavits about the legal status of the properties, which presented them as public assets (instead of religious assets), so that they would be heard by a civil court for approval of the transactions and their sale at a significantly lower price than their real value.

For more than a year and a half, Jerusalem police have been conducting a covert investigation into suspicions of trafficking in the assets of the ancient and well-known Eitz Chaim Hekdesh in Jerusalem.

Police on Monday morning, July 1, 2019, during the early morning hours, raided the homes of the five; the four trustees and the real estate consultant, all ranging in age from 50-70. According to a BeChadrei Chareidim report, all four have the same last name and the real estate consultant was involved in illegal real estate dealings with the chareidi community in the past.

The five were arrested on suspicion of receiving money fraudulently, under aggravated circumstances, breach of trust in a corporation, false registration of corporate documents [all offenses under the Prohibition of Money Laundering Law]. They were all scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon.

A hearing was set for Tuesday morning in the high Court of Justice in the case of Talmud Torah Eitz Chaim Betar Illit against the Av Beis Din of Chief Rabbinate Beis Din, the beis din’s directors, the Rabbinate’s legal advisor and others, on the backdrop of the paralysis of the Beis Din of Hekdeshim for over a half year due to the dissolving of the makeup of the dayanim of the beis din in December 2018 by the Av Beis Din, Chief Rabbi HaRav Dovid Lau.

As a result, the petitioners are prevented from receiving a response from the beis din, while the Eitz Chaim Hekdesh is in the process of liquidation and recovery in the District Court, thus the rights of the petitioners as the Eitz Chaim may be compromised.

Attorney Batya Kahana-Dror is representing the petitioner. She explains “The previous beis din headed by Rav Shlomo Shtesman began in 2016 was in fact the first that not only identified the serious flaws in the activity of the trustees of the Hekdesh, but also took purposeful and essential actions to save the Hekdesh and present the continued theft and loss [from their funds]”.

Kahana-Dror explains this involves tens of millions of shekels or more, and there is no doubt that the beis din must convene urgently to prevent additional serious damage that may be caused to the petitioners and all Hekdeshim.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)