Police: Lawyers cheated Egypt banks out of NIS 18m.

Israel-Arab suspects represented banks in recent transactions say police; banks have long owned rights to portion of King David Hotel.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Money Shekels bills 521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Money Shekels bills 521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
A police fraud squad arrested Wednesday two Israeli Arab lawyers on suspicion of swindling Egyptian banks out of 18 million shekels.
The suspects, one from Baka al-Garabiya and the second from Jat, in the North, represented the banks in recent transactions police said.
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The banks have long owned rights to a portion of Jerusalem's King David Hotel, and hired the lawyers to claim their portions, worth around 300 million shekels.
The suspects filed legal claims, and paid a four-million-shekel court processing fee with a check that later bounced.
The lawyers received a court receipt for the check, and allegedly changed the amount on it from four to eight million shekels, according to police.
"They claimed this amount from one of the banks, and used the same method to claim 10 million shekels from the second Egyptian bank," a spokesman for a police fraud squad from the northern district said.
The banks filed a police complaint through a legal representative, which ended in Wednesday's arrests.