Court convicts key Hirchson witness

In plea bargain, ex-NFW treasurer Cohen admits to stealing NIS 10m. for former finance minister.

By DAN IZENBERG
Ovadia Cohen Hirchson crony 224 88 (photo credit: Channel 10)
Ovadia Cohen Hirchson crony 224 88
(photo credit: Channel 10)
Tel Aviv District Court on Thursday began hearing testimony in the trial of former Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson, who is charged with having stolen about NIS 2.5 million from the National Workers' Federation and its subsidiary, Nili. Meanwhile, in an earlier hearing, the court convicted Ovadia Cohen, head of the NWF's financial department and of Nili between 1998 and 2003, after he reached a plea bargain with the state. Cohen will be the state's key witness in the case against Hirchson. He was convicted of stealing NIS 10 m. from the NWF and Nili and giving about NIS 2.5 m. to Hirchson and NIS 6.7 m. to his brother, David. According to the agreement, the state will ask for a prison sentence of four years and eight months for Cohen. He was charged with theft by a director, money-laundering and false entry in documents of a corporate body. Meanwhile, another suspect who reached a plea bargain with the prosecution, Ronit Garti, told the court during the opening day of testimony in Hirchson's trial that she had been ordered each month to place NIS 30,000 in cash in brown envelopes which had nothing written on them. She said that when she asked her boss at the time, Gideon Ben-Tzur, the NWF accountant, what the money was for, she was told, "It's for the big one. The big one wants money now." Garti worked in the NWF tax office beginning in 2000 and started working as an accountant in the department in 2003, under Ben-Tzur, who was the chief accountant until he retired in 2004. Garti took over his post and held it until the end of 2005. In her testimony, she said she had written checks for various people in the union without knowing what they were for. She classified them in the books under the heading "special fund." Garti said that at one point, she had complained to Hirchson about the checks. "He thanked me and told me to keep updating him," she told the court. Garti and the state reached a plea bargain on Monday, according to which the state will ask the court to sentence her to six months of public service.