Real estate developer said about to turn state witness against Likud MK
Dror Glazer suspected of transferring NIS 250,000 for ex-coalition chairman David Bitan; Ronen Ginzburg, CEO of Danya Cebus construction company, named as suspect
A close associate of Likud MK David Bitan is set to sign a deal to turn state witness in connection with an increasingly widening corruption investigation centering around the lawmaker and senior Rishon Lezion city officials, Hebrew media reported Wednesday,
Dror Glazer, a real estate developer, is suspected of having transferred NIS 250,000 ($72,000) to Bitan via another suspect in the case, Moshe Yosef, Hadashot news and Channel 10 reported.
Hadashot news reported that the prosecution insisted that any state witnesses in this case will nevertheless have to receive a jail sentence.
In addition, the court lifted a gag order on the name of a major real estate developer arrested Wednesday morning.
The suspect, Ronen Ginzburg, is the CEO of Danya Cebus, a construction company with numerous projects in the central Israeli city. He is suspected of bribery, money laundering and tax evasion, police said in a statement. His remand was extended for a further six days.
His lawyer said that the Danya Cebus case should be examined against the background of the Supreme Court’s decisions on the Holyland affair.
Ten former officials and businessmen, including former prime minister Ehud Olmert, were convicted in March 2014 over the Holyland building project in Jerusalem, which has been characterized as among the largest graft cases in Israel’s history.
Hadashot speculated that Danya Cebus will claim that although it gave hundreds of thousands of shekels to Moshe Yosef to advance at least one of its construction projects, it will say that it was unaware that the money was going to Bitan and there was no way for it to have known.
The latest suspicions arose from the Tuesday testimony of businessman Yosef, a key suspect and possible future state witness in the case, who was known as Bitan’s banker. Yosef reportedly told police that Bitan received bribes to the tune of NIS 5 million ($1.4 million) in total.
Based on that testimony, police suspect that Bitan received NIS 300,000 ($86,000) from Danya Cebus, a subsidiary of Africa Israel Investments Ltd., Hadashot TV news reported.
Responding to the reports, Africa Israel released a statement Wednesday morning, with the opening of trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, confirming the involvement of Danya Cebus in the police investigation.
“The company is informing investors that, according to the best of our knowledge, police are investigating Rishon Lezion projects involving Danya Cebus,” the no-frills statement said.
During his tenure as deputy mayor of Rishon Lezion, police suspect Bitan also received hundreds of thousands of shekels from the Hetzi Hinam supermarket chain in exchange for reducing property taxes on the supermarkets, Channel 10 reported, without providing a specific sum.
Bitan is suspected of taking loans from numerous businessmen as well as members of the Jarushi crime family and, when he was unable to repay them, offering favors in exchange for forgiveness of the loans. Police are investigating whether the bribery schemes may have continued even after Bitan entered the Knesset in 2015 and was appointed coalition whip.
Bitan, who has already been questioned four times by police, is reportedly set to be questioned again on Thursday.
During a five-hour interrogation by police last week, the lawmaker refused to answer nearly all of the questions. It was unclear whether he would also remain silent during the next round of interrogation.
The investigation, dubbed by police Case 1803, has seen the arrests of a number of suspects, including Rishon Lezion’s mayor and other city officials, local businessmen, and organized crime figures. Bitan stepped down as coalition whip shortly after news of the investigation broke.
Police have examined files at Yosef’s furniture store, which investigators believe was used as a front for money laundering.
When the probe into Bitan began, officers set up hidden cameras and recording devices in the store, and, based on the evidence they collected, built up a strong case against him, according to leaks from the investigation.
Police footage from the cameras reportedly showed Bitan counting large sums of money and appearing to use the store as a bank to withdraw cash. Officers were also said to have secretly filmed Bitan’s wife leaving Yosef’s store
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
