Businessman Nochi Dankner began serving his three-year sentence on Tuesday, 23 Tishrei, after being convicted of running shares and was sentenced to three years in prison by the Supreme Court.

Dankner will serve his sentence in Massiyahu Prison, wing 10, where former Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger is serving his sentence, as did former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has since been released.

When he entered prison, Dankner told the media: “The situation here is a difficult day for me and my family, I fought for my innocence … I believe in HKBH that everything is for the best, trust the justice system and the law and love the State of Israel very much.”

Nochi Dankner was considered one of the most influential and successful businessmen in Israel when he was chairman of the IDB concern. At the time, he was considered a close associate of Rabbi Yeshayahu Pinto and Rabbi Yaakov Israel Effergan, known as “The Rentgan”.

The affair began in 2011, after years of prosperity, and IDB was expected to face cash flow problems and began looking for sources of financing. Dankner checked with his partners and friends and decided in February 2012 to issue an offering.

Following the IPO, the Israel Securities Authority opened an investigation regarding the offering, and in June 2014 a serious indictment was filed against Dankner, against its capital market partner Itai Shtrom and against IDB Holdings. The main charge related to an issue in which NIS 321 million was raised from the public.

In July 2016, both Dankner and Shtrom were convicted, inter alia, of running shares. District Court Judge Khaled Kabov ruled that the two “acted jointly and in concert to support IDB’s share price, in order to increase trading turnover and prevent the exchange rate from falling, and to convey to the market that there are interested parties who buy and sell the paper without an improper motive. Such defendants, experienced and professional, I cannot accept their version that they did not see what was clear to all and did not recognize the illegality of their actions.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)