A district court sentenced a senior official in Israel’s Dimona nuclear facility to 2.5 years imprisonment and NIS 100,000 fine after being found guilty of fraud and bribery over a two-year period

The Be’er Sheva District Court has convicted three defendants and two companies in a fraud case involving the Nuclear Research Center (NRC) and another body, totaling NIS 3.2 million, in the years 2011-2014.

The defendants were convicted in an indictment including offenses of fraud under aggravated circumstances, fraud and breach of trust and money laundering, each according to his share in the case.

The main defendant, defendant #1, served as an external consultant to the NRC and provided it with services and products through a company owned by him. In 2011, he was hired by the state to head the NRC.

In this capacity, the defendant was directly and indirectly involved, on behalf of the NRC, in receiving manpower services and procurement products from two private companies he owned and in which he had an economic interest, while carrying out fraudulent acts and concealing his relations with these companies.

In this way, the main defendant, as a civil servant, caused the state to acquire products and services from the companies with which he is connected. The court held that in addition to systematic fraud, the defendant acted in a clear conflict of interest and wore several hats simultaneously.

As a manager at the NRC, the defendant was involved in the activities of the private companies that remained in his possession – the defendant received services from them, recruited workers and employed them, supervised and approved the work hours for which they were transferred to those companies; while at the same time managing the same companies together with other defendants, and generated personal profits through them.

Regarding Defendant #3, who was co-owner with the main defendant in one of the companies (Defendant 5) and even managed it, it was determined that the fraud was carried out in full cooperation with his economic and management partners and among other things was a partner in decisions regarding receipt and transfer of monies and invoices.

The court also ruled that the circumstances of the offenses are serious, inter alia, because they were carried out against the Nuclear Research Institute – a government body of great importance. The sentence was handed down two months ago on April 30, 2019 and has now been cleared for publication. The case was investigated by the Investigations Unit of the Defense Ministry’s Security Department, which was conducted by attorney Ben Ami Cohen of the Economic Department of the State Attorney’s Office.

The court sentenced the defendants to the following penalties: 1 – 30 months’ imprisonment, a fine of NIS 100,000 and a probation.

• Defendant #3 was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment – a fine of NIS 75,000 and probation.
• The two accused companies (defendants 4 and 5) were fined NIS 100,000 each. In addition, the Court imposed a forfeiture of the companies’ monies in the amount of NIS 250,000 under the Prohibition on Money Laundering Law.
• Defendant #2: There was a plea bargain at an earlier stage and she was convicted of helping the fraud for which it was determined that she assisted in the commission of the offenses, inter alia, in that the shares of the main defendant in one of the companies (defendant 4) were transferred to it in trust for the purpose of creating the false situation, according to which the main defendant severed all economic interest in the company and performed additional acts that enabled the sophisticated deception. The court sentenced her to a sentence of 6 months of community service and a fine of NIS 50,000.

Defendants 1,3,4, and 5 have appealed to the Supreme Court.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)