18 months for attorney who embezzled NIS 1.8 million

Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court also ordered Naim to pay a fine of NIS 20,000 and a further NIS 50,000 in compensation to the plaintiff.

By JOANNA PARASCZCUK
311_gavel (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
311_gavel
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Attorney Ron Naim was sentenced on Monday to 18 months’ imprisonment for stealing NIS 1.8 million from a former client, a subsidiary of Koor Industries Ltd.
The Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court also ordered Naim to pay a fine of NIS 20,000 and a further NIS 50,000 in compensation to the plaintiff.
RELATED:
Ex-Hadera deputy mayor gets 6 months' community service
According to the charge sheet, in 2000 Naim represented Solkoor, a subsidiary of holding company Koor Industries Ltd., in a case in the Tel Aviv District Court against the Brahms Group and Meir Goldman.
At the end of the legal proceedings, the Brahms Group and Goldman were ordered to pay Solkoor a sum of over NIS 2m.
Naim received checks for that amount on behalf of Solkoor, but instead of transferring them to his client, deposited them into a bank account he had opened in his name.
In 2002, Naim transferred NIS 500,000 to Solkoor and claimed this was the total amount he had received from the Brahms Group and Goldman.
Over the next year, Naim stole NIS 1.8m. from the account.
In sentencing Naim, Judge Ziva Herman wrote that the attorney had not only caused damage to Solkoor but had also damaged public trust in the legal profession.
“The offense of which the defendant has been convicted is a serious one. He used his position and the trust placed in him to steal money from a client by means of fraud and deception,” wrote Herman. “The courts have repeated time and again that the appropriate punishment is imprisonment for a meaningful period, both as a deterrent and as an expression of public revulsion towards the conduct of lawyers who breach trust.”
The judge also noted that in sentencing Naim, the court had taken into consideration the fact that he was suffering from an illness.