Yet another cabinet minister is being investigated for alleged law-breaking. The latest police case involves Minister of Welfare (Likud) Chaim Katz, who is suspected of insider trading along with financial advisor for Nitsba Holdings Ltd. Mordechai Ben-Aryeh. Nitsba is a property managing company with holdings in Israel and abroad.

According to allegations against Katz, he was made aware of information of a merger with Airport City and acted on the insider information by buying Nitsba before the news was publicized. Nitsba shares increased in value considerably when the deal was publicized.

The probe to date has established that Katz is closely tied to Ben-Aryeh in numerous business dealings. It is reported that Katz’s worth is estimated in the tens of millions of shekels.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)