police recommends: to indite Interior Minister Aryeh Deri for fraud and breach of trust

The police announced that an evidentiary basis was found against Interior Minister Aryeh Deri for fraud and breach of trust while serving as a minister. In addition, evidence was found for the commission of tax offenses in significant amounts of millions of shekels, money laundering, disruption of court proceedings and the submission of a false affidavit to the State Comptroller and the Knesset Speaker regarding his assets and income.
In 2015, the investigation began in Lahav 433 of the police, with the assistance of the Israel Money Laundering Prohibition Authority, which raised suspicions of irregular behavior in bank accounts connected with Deri and his family, and pointed out significant sums of money from businessmen to the Deri family, some before his return to political activity. In April 2016, an open investigation began in which dozens of people were interrogated, and in May 2017 another stage of the investigation began, during which Deri was questioned with caution.
The investigation dealt with financial transfers in the sum of hundreds of thousands of shekels, which were transferred to Minister Deri from various businessmen. The nature of the payments and the manner in which they are reported, transactions for the sale of land owned by Deri in Har Shmuel and Givat Shaul, the purchase of land in Safsofa, statements by the Minister to the Knesset Speaker and the State Comptroller.
Despite the fact that Minister Deri was explicitly requested not to speak with one of the parties concerned about the issues that were investigated and warned against tampering with evidence, he immediately approached him at the conclusion of his interrogation and discussed the contents of the matter and his expected testimony with the police and refreshed his memory.
In addition, an evidentiary basis was established against the brother of the minister, attorney Shlomo Deri, who is currently the deputy chairman of the JNF, to commit tax offenses in significant amounts of millions of shekels.
The investigation into the additional suspicions that have been investigated has not yet been completed, but this is a separate case in which the material gathered was not based on evidence against Deri, and therefore it was decided not to delay the transfer of the case in which the suspicions were investigated.
"We welcome the end of the police investigation, which lasted almost three years, and we received with satisfaction the denial of the serious suspicions of accepting bribes, theft from associations and others that led to the opening of the investigation," said Deri, The suspicions will prove that Minister Aryeh Deri did not break the law. "
Adv. Yaron Kostelitz, attorney for attorney Shlomo Deri, said that he is convinced that the State Prosecutor's Office will reach the conclusion that attorney Deri has not committed any offense and that he should not be indicted.