Portrait of Rami Levi taken in his supermarket in Jerusalem. on June 23, 2016. (Miriam Alster / FLASH90)
Police announced Monday they had closed the investigation into supermarket chain owner Rami Levy, Mevasseret Zion Mayor Yoram Shimon, and local businessman Amir Hochberg, saying they had found no evidence against them.
A statement from police read, “Upon conclusion of the investigation, the investigators believe that there is insufficient evidence to establish the suspicions against the three.”
The men had been suspected of fraud and breach of trust around the construction of a mall.
Mevasseret Zion local council head Yoram Shimon at the 443 anti-corruption police unit on September 10, 2017. (Roy Alima/FLASH90)
The three were arrested in March and though many details of the case were under gag order, officials had said the owner of the eponymous supermarket chain was the main suspect in the investigation.
Police said at the time that the arrests came after a months-long undercover investigation into Shimon’s handling of the construction of a local shopping mall.
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The allegations apparently stemmed from NIS 20 million in taxes that Levy was mostly exempted from paying at one of his mall development projects.
Levy owns a chain of discount supermarkets bearing his name around the country, as well as a cellphone network, and has recently begun developing commercial real estate as well.
He has long been a well-respected entrepreneur, and was a torch-lighter at the state’s main Independence Day ceremony in 2015, one of Israel’s highest civilian honors.
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