Lawyer tied to Likud minister’s alleged financial crimes arrested in sweeping raid

Police arrested a lawyer and detained several other suspects Monday morning as part of an investigation into Social Equality Minister May Golan and her associates, who are suspected of fraud, illegally pocketing the ministry’s funds and other financial crimes.

Investigators have been probing the right-wing lawmaker for months, but Monday’s announcement marked the first time law enforcement went public with the case against her.

Officers planned to interrogate Golan as a suspect, the Kan public broadcaster reported, soon after a string of raids on the homes of the minister’s associates and the Social Equality Ministry in Jerusalem was announced by police.

But Golan threatened not to show up to the police interrogation, calling the string of arrests a “dirty move” motivated by politics.

Golan and her associates are suspected of fraud, misusing public funds for private purposes, creating fictitious positions in the Social Equality Ministry and concealing sources of funding. All this was done through the use of NGOs and government systems as a “tool for illegally extracting funds,” police said.

Golan, a right-wing firebrand who first gained public attention by campaigning against illegal migrants in her home neighborhood in south Tel Aviv, has denied the accusations. Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding recent developments in the investigation.

Police planned to bring the arrested lawyer — who previously served as a parliamentary advisor to Golan — before the Rishon LeZion Magistrate’s Court with a request to extend his detention.

Among the suspects detained for questioning was a current adviser to Golan. While searching the adviser’s home in Yavne, police stumbled upon a marijuana farm, which, according to Hebrew reports, was operated by her husband.

The detained suspects were taken for questioning at the offices of the police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit, and Golan herself was also summoned for questioning there.

Although Golan’s defense attorney initially confirmed that she would respond to the police summons, the minister backtracked on Monday afternoon, saying she would merely “consider” heeding the summons on the condition that her associates would be released.

“I will consider coming to the interrogation only if all my associates who were arrested, with the aim of intimidating me, are released immediately,” she said.

She called the police’s string of arrests and detentions a “dirty move” intended to “threaten innocent people just because they worked and [currently] work for May Golan the ‘Bibist.'”

The investigation into Golan’s alleged misuse of ministry funds was opened in February this year following a Channel 12 News exposé, which alleged she created fake positions for relatives of friends and influential colleagues, who did no actual work in the ministry.

These supposed employees at the ministry included the wife of Golan’s long-time legal adviser, who runs a dog grooming business but was also listed as a salaried employee in her office. The attorney himself had been paid thousands of shekels to prepare legal documents that were never filed, Channel 12 reported earlier this year.

The report also accused Golan of using parliamentary aides for personal tasks in contravention of Knesset protocol, claiming aides were sent to drive her mother around, buy her food, collect packages and distribute gifts to friends.

In late August, Channel 12 reported that Golan and several prominent figures in Israeli social-welfare groups engineered an elaborate deal in which her ministry would give money to ZAKA for a program ostensibly aimed at aiding the elderly, while in reality, the money would go to her and associates.

Prosecutors’ decision to greenlight the investigation prompted a fiery response at the time from Golan and coalition politicians, who accused Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Prosecutor Amit Aisman of selective enforcement against right-wing politicians.