Bank workers accused of swindling Holocaust survivor
Two Jerusalem employees suspected of befriending 97-year-old woman, encouraging her to write checks totaling NIS 800,000
Marissa Newman is The Times of Israel political correspondent.
Two employees of a Jerusalem bank were arrested on Monday on suspicion that they had swindled a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor out of hundreds of thousands of shekels.
The two suspects, a man and woman, allegedly befriended the elderly woman after noting the large fortune in her account at the First International Bank of Israel, and persuaded her to write out checks to them over an extended period of time.
The checks amounted to some NIS 800,000 ($200,000) overall, and the two were also in the process of encouraging the woman to revise her will and include them as beneficiaries.
A social worker at the nursing home where the elderly woman lives got wind of the plan and lodged a complaint with police. The woman had confided in the social worker, the Ynet news site reported.
She has no immediate living relatives.
The two suspects have denied the charges of extortion and fraud.
They were scheduled to be brought before a judge for a remand hearing on Tuesday afternoon.
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