State indicts Bat Yam Mayor Lahiani on bribery, fraud, charges

Indictment comes just three weeks before municipal elections in which Lahiani running for reelection.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Lahiani 248.88 (photo credit: Channel 10 )
Lahiani 248.88
(photo credit: Channel 10 )
Only weeks before municipal elections, the state’s financial crimes unit on Tuesday filed an indictment against Bat Yam Mayor Shlomo Lahiani in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court on charges of bribery, fraud, breach of public trust and perjury.
Lahiani is suspected of taking around NIS 900,000 in bribes, starting in 2005, to advance the interests of local businessmen in Bat Yam and asking nine municipality employees to take bank loans and transfer the money to him.
Lahiani is also accused of a conflict of interest for holding partial ownership in a local newspaper from which the Bat Yam municipality bought advertising space.
Prior to the indictment, Lahiani was considered a highly popular mayor and was credited with a level of revitalization of Bat Yam.