Top media consultant and former cabinet secretary brought in for questioning in corruption case

Two of the detainees, including a former Ben-Eliezer aide, are suspected of having given bribes so that a specific advertising company would be contracted for state-funded projects.

By BEN HARTMAN
Lahav 433 headquarters (photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
Lahav 433 headquarters
(photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
An unidentified former cabinet secretary, a media consultant well connected to a number of Israeli politician, and an employee of the Dead Sea Preservation Government Company Ltd. are among four suspects brought in for questioning on Monday as part of a wide-reaching corruption case mainly revolving around officials from the Yisrael Beytenu party.
Two were arrested and two were subsequently released.
The consultant, Ronen Moshe, was brought for a remand extension at the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, where he was ordered kept in custody for three days. According to his arrest warrant, he is suspected of “conspiring to advance budgetary funding for various government offices, in exchange for bribes.”
Moshe has worked as a consultant for a number of politicians, including Ehud Barak, former defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and, for the Koolanu party, headed by Moshe Kahlon.
Also arrested on Monday was Tali Keidar, an employee of The Dead Sea Preservation Government Company Ltd., who faces the same allegations as Moshe as part of the same conspiracy.
Keidar previously worked for the head of the Agriculture Ministry Rami Cohen and former tourism minister Stas Misezhnikov, both of whom also have been arrested as part of the wider corruption case.
Keidar’s remand also was extended by three days on Monday.
Moshe’s attorney, Yaron London, said his client’s name was linked to the case solely because of his work as a consultant and that “we have no doubt that by the end of the investigation, the matter will be cleared up and his innocence proven.”
The unidentified former cabinet secretary runs a consulting firm and is suspected of taking bribes or commission of some sort so that a specific public relations company would receive a contract for a project carried out by a number of different NGOs working together. He was questioned on Monday and released on five days house arrest, as was the fourth suspect.
He is also suspected of having been in contact to some degree with Yisrael Beytenu MK Faina Kirschenbaum and Yisrael Beytenu chief of staff David “Daoud” Godovsky, believed to be at the top of the sprawling corruption case.
Investigators on Monday morning searched the offices of an advertising company associated with one of the suspects and confiscated computers and other materials.