ITA's NY rep arrested at Ben-Gurion

Tax chief Jacky Matza sent to house arrest as bribery scandal inquiry continues.

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
yaakov matza 298.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
yaakov matza 298.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
A new name was added to the list of suspects in the ITA corruption scandal with the arrest of ITA representative to the United States Yigal Sa'ar shortly after his arrival at Ben-Gurion International Airport. Although police would not elaborate on the allegations against Sa'ar, they confirmed that investigators had summoned him to return from his American offices in order to be questioned. Following Sa'ar's arrival, he was arrested and then taken to the Bat Yam offices of the National Fraud Squad, the latest in a parade of senior ITA officials to pass through the gauntlet outside the elite unit's doors. As Sa'ar was beginning his questioning, his boss, ITA head Jacky Matza, was released from prison to house arrest Monday evening. Matza, who has been in jail since last Tuesday, and police agreed that the now-suspended ITA head would serve 16 days of house arrest, and would then be barred from entering ITA offices for an additional 30 days. Businessman Kobi Ben Gur, who was taken Sunday from the National Fraud Squad's interrogation rooms to Tel Hashomer for examinations after he felt unwell during questioning, was returned to his cell at Abu Kabir Detention Facility late Sunday night. Although there had been reports that Ben Gur would be brought for a staged confrontation together with fellow suspect Shula Zaken on Monday in order to make order out of their differing accounts of events, police said that the conversation did not take place. Instead, the questioning Monday centered around the strategy of presenting the suspects with the evidence gathered against them by detectives thus far. The National Fraud Squad is investigating allegations that ITA appointments - including that of Matza himself - were influenced by powerful businessmen. Police suspect that after those people were appointed, the businessmen would approach them in order to gain preferential treatment in tax assessments.