Police early Monday morning, 9 Teves, announced that 12 suspects were detained for questioning and another 8 persons were taken into custody, including senior officials in the Matte Yehuda Regional Council, the result of an undercover investigation into alleged corruption. The allegations against some of the suspects include money laundering, bribery, accepting bribes, fraud, evading taxes, and assaulting women. The arrests include some of the most senior officials in the council.

The investigation was conducted by police in cooperation with the Antitrust Authority and the Tax Authority with the assistance of the Authority to Prevent Money Laundering & Financing of Terrorism, accompanied by prosecutors in Jerusalem (criminal) and Tel Aviv (taxation and economics). Due to the fact the case deals with a publically traded company, the SEC was also involved.

Following the undercover investigation, agents of the police, Tax Authority and the Antitrust Authority on Monday morning moved in and made the arrests. Suspects were arrested in their homes as searches of their offices were taking place including companies affiliated with the regional council. Computers and documents were confiscated.

The Matte Yehuda Regional Council is in the Jerusalem District of Israel. It contains 57 communities which vary greatly in their character. There are religious, secular and mixed Jewish communities, two Arab communities, and the only mixed Arab-Jewish village in Israel – Neve Shalom. Many of the Jewish communities in the Mate Yehuda district were established by immigrants from India, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and countries in Eastern Europe.

According to Central Bureau of Statistics data, in 2007 it was home to 36,200 people. The name of the regional council stems from the fact that its territory was part of the land allotted to the Shevat Yehuda.

The regional council administers moshavim, kibbutzim, Arab villages and other rural settlements that lie to the north and south of Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, from Jerusalem to Latrun and up to area of Beit Shemesh (Ha’ela Valley) in the South.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)