Court rejects retrial for pension embezzlement

Yisrael Perry's request for retrial in conviction for 320 m. German marks embezzlement from pension funds rejected.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Yisrael Perry 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Yisrael Perry 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The Supreme Court, led by former deputy court president Eliezer Rivlin, rejected on Tuesday night attorney Yisrael Perry’s request for a retrial of his conviction for embezzlement of 320 million German marks from thousands of his clients’ pension funds.
Perry was previously convicted by the Tel Aviv District Court.
The pension funds were unique in that they came from German pension programs open to Israelis since the signing of an agreement between Israel and West Germany in 1973. Perry managed the transfer of the funds from Germany to those Israelis who had met the eligibility requirements for the special program.
The motion was only one in the latest of Perry’s attempts to overturn his conviction including an appeal and a request for reconsideration, all of which were also previously rejected.
In 2007, Perry was convicted for committing a number of serious crimes, including embezzlement, fraud and obstruction of justice. The conviction had included a 12- year prison sentence and a NIS 21.75 million fine.
In his request for a retrial, Perry tried to convince the Supreme Court that he had not caused any financial damage to his customers.
Perry even tried to invert the facts leading to his conviction, saying that his actions were beneficial to his clients in refraining from collecting fees. He submitted several expert reports that he had paid for to support his argument.
The court analyzed each of Perry’s claims, but ultimately accepted the state’s position and upheld the conviction.
While Rivlin retired as a Supreme Court justice on May 28 at the mandatory age of 70, he is still able to rule on cases that he began before leaving the bench.
The court criticized Perry for breaching the trust of thousands of clients and determined that he had stolen their monthly pension funds.
Attorneys Yael Dekel-Shapir and Yonatan Kramer handled the case for the state.