Police arrest southern mayor for allegedly pocketing wartime donations to residents
Local officials, businessmen also arrested for suspected role in corruption case involving millions of shekels given to municipalities
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Police on Monday detained a mayor in southern Israel for questioning on suspicion of pocketing millions of shekels in wartime donations for himself and his associates.
He was arrested alongside several local officials and businessmen suspected of involvement in the alleged corruption. Police did not identify the suspects or say how many people were detained.
According to police, millions of shekels donated to the municipality for the benefit of residents amid the two-year war against Hamas in Gaza and the war last year with Iran were transferred to a community fund and from there, “found their way into the private pockets of the mayor and his associates.”
According to Haaretz, the mayor and senior municipality officials demanded that the funds be transferred to private businesses in the city, and the businesses allegedly passed on the funds or other benefits to the mayor and the officials.
Channel 12 News reported that a city council member had in September petitioned the Beersheba District Court to compel the suspects to disclose all documents relating to the use of donated funds, which totaled approximately NIS 26 million ($8.36 million).
Her petition said, “the municipality and the other bodies refrained from presenting, in full transparency and as required by law, the relevant documents that could shed light on the decision-making process regarding the implementation of the donations.”
Detectives in the police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit had been conducting a covert investigation into the alleged corruption for months before searching suspects’ homes and offices on Monday morning.
Police said the suspects are being interrogated at the offices of the National Fraud Investigation Unit, a unit within Lahav 433.
The Times of Israel Community.