Ex-Yisrael Beytenu MKs to be indicted on corruption charges

Latest: Corruption and Money Laundering.

Ex-Yisrael Beytenu MKs to be indicted on corruption charges.

Former Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum 

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 Photo credit: Photo credit: Contac

Former Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, former Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum likely to face bribery, fraud, money laundering charges • MK: Yisrael Beytenu behaves like "crime organization" • Yisrael Beytenu: We hope allegations prove false.

Yair Altman and Mati Tuchfeld.

Top Yisrael Beytenu officials may soon face corruption charges over the massive corruption scandal partly uncovered in late 2014, the Attorney General's Office said Monday.

Attorney General Avihai Mendelblit and State Attorney Shai Nitzan said former Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, former Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum, and 14 other Yisrael Beytenu officials will be summoned for a judicial hearing, a procedure used prior to filing charges formally against suspects involved in criminal cases.

Misezhnikov is likely to face bribery, fraud, breach of trust, drug possession, and obstruction of justice charges, while Kirshenbaum is likely to face bribery, fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and tax violation charges.

The State Attorney's Office said the case was one of the biggest instances of corruption ever uncovered in Israel.

The investigation, headed by the police's Lahav 443 Major Crimes Unit, found that between 2009 and 2014, the suspects worked systematically to divert government budgets to different bodies in return for personal and political gains.

The police believe Kirshenbaum, who left politics in 2015, masterminded the scheme, receiving funds directly to her bank accounts.

As part of the investigation, the police searched the suspects' homes and offices, seizing thousands of documents. Some 480 people, including elected officials and senor public servants, were questioned. Assets worth an estimated 25 million shekels ($6.7 million) were confiscated.

Police enlisted seven state witnesses, including Gershon Mesika, who resigned as head of the Samaria Regional Council in 2015, when building their case.

Attorney Yuval Sasson, representing Misezhnikov, said in a statement, "The draft indictment reveals that Misezhnikov's arrest was a false arrest whose sole purpose was to generate headlines." He said he was confident the charges against the former minister would be dropped.

According to the State Attorney's Office, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman was not implicated in the case in any way.

Following the announcement by the Attorney General's Office, Yisrael Beytenu released a statement saying, "We hope the allegations prove false."

Zionist Union MK Mickey Rosenthal said, "Yisrael Beytenu acted, for all intents and purposes, as a crime organization -- a network of bribery, threats ... and money laundering. Just as in any self-respecting crime organization, when it falls, the loyal soldiers fall, but the commander knows how to look out for himself and manages to escape."

According to Rosenthal, "It's no secret that nothing happens in Yisrael Beytenu without Lieberman's direct authorization. Former Minister Misezhnikov and former Deputy [Interior] Minister Faina Kirshenbaum, who will soon be indicted, followed his orders. So did most of the 14 other suspects in the affair who were either personally appointed by Lieberman or his loyal associates. The party's mafia mechanism hands out millions as bribery from Lieberman's coalition funds, but Lieberman? No way. He didn't know. The magnitude is unfathomable. This is one of the biggest corruption cases ever in Israel, and the main character in the story is our defense minister."

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