Jerusalem police report the suspicion is that dozens of buildings are in danger of being evacuated/collapse/demolished, which led to a covert investigation by the Israel Police. That investigation revealed a serious forgery by a qualified architect who falsified the signatures of engineers, which led to the approval and construction of dozens of illegal structures that could endanger their residents.

In recent days, police fraud investigators have been conducting a covert investigation following information received about architectural plans that were submitted for approval in order to obtain building permits with fake engineer stamps.

During the course of the investigation, a complex picture emerged, according to which the suspect acted in the same manner in dozens of cases and submitted requests for building permits in the councils around Jerusalem. The signatures of the engineers, which constitute a significant part of the building approval process, are forged, and in practice these engineers never contacted the architect or signed his plans.

In addition, to date, 32 building permits have been issued for 64 housing units, and according to the suspicion, they were approved illegally in the area of the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council and are valued at hundreds of millions of shekels. There are also dozens of requests for building permits submitted on the same method.

As stated, at this stage various tests were begun on the same structures to examine whether they constitute a danger to those living in them and the public, and some of them may even be evacuated or face demolition orders.

On Monday morning, February 4, 20019, police investigators arrested the suspect, a 30-year-old resident of Ein Nekuva, and he was questioned on suspicion of forging a document under aggravated circumstances, using forged documents in aggravated circumstances, falsifying corporate documents and breach of trust of a public servant.

Later, it will be decided whether he will be brought before the court to extend his detention.

The police pointed out that offenses of forgery and fraud relating to the approval of buildings pose immediate and real danger to the occupants, who use the buildings and the general public, and against these criminals who act deviously and endanger the public safety.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)