Police are moving ahead with a money laundering investigation against Yisrael Beitenu Party leader Avigdor Lieberman, who calls the move “routine” ahead of the general elections.

Supporters of Lieberman explain the impetus for the sudden investigation is obviously the party’s jump in the polls, now predicted to take as many as 16 seats in the next Knesset.

Lieberman has been investigated by police numerous times and has always emerged clean. In some of the cases, he was compelled to turn to the courts to compel police to close investigations against him, investigations that were dead-ended but the cases were not closed.

In this ongoing investigation, a number of Lieberman’s associated were detained for questioning by police of the Fraud Division.

Lieberman stated that it appears police view him as “Yvette the terrible,” referring to his former Russian name. Addressing a Nazareth election rally, he added that interestingly, some view him as a “terrible criminal” while they view MK Jamal Zahalka as a “righteous person”.

Investigators allege that in his capacity of minister, Lieberman accepted large sums in bribe money from 2001-2004 from Martin Schlaff and Michael Chemoy, businessmen. According to police suspicions, the bribes were laundered through companies owned by Lieberman and his daughter, Michal Lieberman-Gal-On.

From 2004-2007, police allege Lieberman received NIS 11 million from sources out of Israel for “consultations” and his salary from 2004-2006 was NIS 2.5 million, prompting police to suspect a major money laundering operation.

A former advisor to Lieberman in the National Infrastructure Ministry in 2002, Sharon Shalom, 34, was remanded by police along with two other associates, including one of his attorneys, Yoav Manny.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)