MK (Labor) Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who recently was compelled to drop out of the race to become Israel’s 10th president, is now the subject of an ongoing investigation against him. The former retired senior IDF officer is alleged to have failed to declare large sums of money.

Investigators are now reporting that he paid cash for his previous home, which he purchased in Rishon L’Tzion for 1.2 million shekels. According to the Channel 2 News report, the MK received two receipts for that home, one for 545,000 NIS and a second for 716,000 NIS. It should be noted that he did not break any law by purchasing the homes in cash, but having that amount of cash available has lit red lights for investigators.

The report adds that he and his wife transferred $405,000 from their joint account to the account of a daughter who lives in New Zealand. Police believe he is channeling money to his children to hide illegal earnings from tax authorities. Authorities also found $600,000 in cash http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/238488/police-raid-safety-deposit-box-belonging-to-ben-eliezer-find-lots-of-cash.html in a safety deposit box held by Ben-Eliezer in Israel.

A spokesman for Ben-Eliezer explains the cash was from the sale of the previous home and that there were no illegal activities.

A look at Ben-Eliezer’s multimillion dollar penthouse (Hebrew):

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)