The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office filed an indictment against Alaa Baydon (48), Ibrahim Haruv (50), Yousef Haruv (56) and Taher Barakat (55), residents of Jerusalem, for capital aggravated forgery offenses, prohibited property transactions and more.

According to the indictment filed by Attorney Sami Hourani of the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office, in 2010, the defendants, antiquities dealers, decided to make an antiquities deal in which Hobi Lobi, an American company, would acquire and direct their assistance from antiquities dealers from Dubai to the Museum of the Bible In the United States.

In order to execute the deal, three of the defendants and representatives of the Libyan lobby went to Dubai. During their stay in Dubai, the defendants met with representatives of hobbies and antique sellers. In this framework, the sellers presented antiquities, including antiquities originating in Iraq.

Since these antiquities are not allowed to enter the United States, because of the origin of the antiquities and the suspicion that they are stolen, the defendants falsified various documents according to which the antiquities originated in Israel, and falsely claimed that they were held for decades in the collection of one of them in the United States. In order to bring antiquities into the United States, the defendants sent the antiquities in small packages.

For this transaction, the defendants received $1.6 million in various accounts, some of which are held by them abroad without recording the sales to tax officials, and in return for the amount they transferred a counterfeit tax invoice to the American company. The indictment also shows that Alaa Baydon committed tax offenses amounting to NIS 18,222,072.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)