Former prime minister Olmert convicted in retrial of graft case
Ehud Olmert found guilty of fraud in Talansky affair after acquittal was re-opened in wake of new testimony from former aide
The Jerusalem District Court found former prime minister Ehud Olmert Monday guilty of fraud and breach of trust Monday morning, two years after he was cleared in the same corruption case.
The verdict came half a year after the Supreme Court ordered a retrial of the so-called Talansky case, saying it would allow new testimony from Olmert’s former assistant Shula Zaken, including recordings of conversations between Olmert and Zaken, who provided the information last spring as part of a plea bargain.
In 2012, the Jerusalem District Court acquitted Olmert on charges of fraud, tax evasion and falsifying corporate records in what became known as the Talansky and Rishon Tours affairs.
In a decision Monday morning, the court said Olmert was guilty of fraud and breach of trust in the case, in which he was accused of accepting envelopes full of cash from American businessman and fundraiser Morris Talansky.
Olmert’s legal team said he would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.
Wearing his trademark light blue button-down shirt, Olmert looked calm and collected walking into the courthouse packed with reporters.
Olmert served as prime minister from 2006 to 2008 before stepping down to fight the charges against him. He also held several ministerial positions and was mayor of Jerusalem over a decade ago.
In May, Olmert was sentenced to six years in prison for accepting bribes while mayor and minister in the real estate scam known as the “Holyland affair” and ordered to report to prison on September 1, but the prison date was suspended pending his appeal.
That case revolved around a massive bribery scandal centered on a hulking residential project in the capital. It was considered the largest graft case in the country’s history.
While beating most charges in 2012, Olmert was found guilty on a lesser charge of breach of trust in what was known as the Investment Center case, in which he was found to have granted personal favors to attorney Uri Messer when he served as trade minister.
Olmert was also cleared on accusations of paying for family vacations by double billing Jewish organizations through the Rishon Tours travel agency.
The charges were filed after he became prime minister in 2006, but covered his time as mayor of Jerusalem and later as a government minister. He officially resigned as prime minister in September 2008 after police investigators recommended that he be indicted.
Zaken was convicted on two counts of fraudulently obtaining benefits and breach of trust in the Rishon Tours case. In the Holyland case, a judge accepted her plea bargain and sentenced her to 11 months in prison for accepting bribes.
At the end of the Holyland hearings, she came forward with the recordings in exchange for a lighter sentence.
The recordings include Olmert offering Zaken hush money and evidence of tampering with the case, prosecutors say.
JTA contributed to this report.
