Top officials, businessman face corruption charges after TA Municipality raid

Detainees suspected of bribery, tax evasion, fraud, money laundering and breach of trust.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
The National Investigations Unit of the police launched an early-morning raid at the Tel Aviv Municipality offices on Monday, collecting evidence as part of a months-long corruption sting and arresting senior municipality officials. Police also arrested businessman and political organizer Yair Zabari, founder of the People of the City political list. Zabari has been active in the city's upcoming mayoral race, and has thrown his support behind Maj.-Gen. (Ret.) Oren Shachor, who is running for mayor on Zabari's list in Tel Aviv's municipal elections, slated for November 11. According to police, the investigation netted 10 arrests, including city officials, businessman and real estate developers all suspected of bribery, tax evasion, fraud, money laundering and breach of trust. The investigation was conducted as an undercover operation for over three months before revealing itself on Sunday, when the first four of the 10 suspects were arrested. Six more people, including Zabari, where arrested on Monday. Implications of the scandal had already begun to shake up the municipal political scene in Tel Aviv on Monday afternoon, as Shachor announced he was leaving the People of the City list, following Zabari's arrest, and joining a different one - "For Tel Aviv-Jaffa." "We have no details regarding the arrests but we're hoping that the issue will resolve itself in a good way for Zabari," read a statement released on Monday by Shachor's office. "Our [new] list has yet to be formed and in the coming days we plan to announce its members." Zabari's office also released a statement on Monday, in which the motives of the police investigation were called into question. "The decision to investigate Zabari seems strange, suspicious and expressly dishonest," the statement said. "Especially in light of the fact that it comes a week after the announcement to put Oren Shachor at the head of the [political] list. There is a strong smell of elections and political interests here, and the police are lending their hand to it." The investigation comes in the wake of another fiasco within the Tel Aviv Municipality. In July, the so-called "Parking Lot Scandal" also implicated a number of developers and municipal officials, after Ahuzot Hahof, a company owned by the city of Tel Aviv, fraudulently won deals to run nearly 100 paid parking lots throughout the city. Charges filed against Rueven Gross, who was allegedly in charge of Ahuzot Hahof, included bribery, fraud and forgery of corporate documents. As part of the investigation, police also turned up evidence implicating the city's former acting mayor Nathan Wolloch with fraudulently obtaining entry visas for a young woman from Moldova.