Last update - 00:00 01/09/2006
Uri Messer: My activity was purely professional
Attorney Uri Messer confirms most of the facts in the investigative report, but maintains that his handling of the cases mentioned in the article was part of the routine of work in his office and was purely businesslike.
Response by attorney Uri Messer: "The law office in which I am the senior partner has been well known in Jerusalem for many years in the realm of commercial civil law. Like any law firm that deals in these matters, our firm naturally comes into contact with the various authorities.
The firm has for many years been active, in terms of subjects and clients, in dealing with the Investment Center, in part because this sphere is among the main areas of occupation of an attorney who worked in our firm and had previously been with the Investment Center and who, regrettably, has passed away. With all modesty, over many years our firm has gained a reputation and high regard for our professional work, our reliability and diverse skills in the various aspects of the law."
Regarding the project at Nevatim, attorney Messer writes: "The Nevatim project involves a rare opportunity to change significantly the employment situation in the Negev. It is the combined idea of leading bodies in the aircraft industry in Israel and internationally, and of private entrepreneurs, to establish a plant to convert planes, which was to employ 1,500 people and involved a substantial financial investment. It was a longtime client of my firm who hired my services for this project. It was not the Sebbags who approached me in this regard. The legal advice I gave the project was intended to bring about a public tender for the project. Minister Olmert did not hold any meetings with the entrepreneurs, but only with Mr. Gabi Sebbag, in which Sebbag put forward his vision for the development of the Negev through the plant's establishment."
On the silica plant: "The legal and professional work in Silikat [Dimona Silica Industries, in English] fused two elements which speak to me at a personal level: professional help to a person who was grossly wronged, and promoting the development of the Negev. At the beginning of the 1990s, Feinblum and the Rotem Negev company joined to establish a joint plant to produce precipitated silica on the basis of a unique method that was conceived by Mr. Feinblum. The project asked for and received, at the time, the status of an "approved plant" with state guarantees. The project was so successful that Rotem informed Feinblum that it was canceling the partnership and on the other hand tried to register a patent that was identical in most of its elements to Feinblum's patent. After years of legal deliberations, in which the entrepreneur lost most of his capital, an arbitrator's decision was handed down by his honor Meir Shamgar, the retired president of the Supreme Court. He accepted in full the arguments of Silikat and also set up machinery for further considerable compensation to be paid by Rotem, if a plant were to be established and received approved status by February 2004.
Therefore, Mr. Feinblum worked for a long time to recruit investors. When he had accomplished this, he asked the Investment Center for the renewed approval of the plant, but suddenly encountered doubts about the project's feasibility. At this stage, Feinblum came to me and asked me to provide legal advice on the subject.
"After I checked the seriousness of the investors, the legal issues and the feasibility of the project on the basis of the material I was shown, I turned to the Investment Center. After many discussions, the Investment Center decided to grant the company approval subject to numerous restrictions. I will note that the director of the Dimona Economic Corporation took part in many of the meetings and tried to advance the project on behalf of the Dimona Municipality. I recall one meeting that took place in the bureau of Minister Olmert, which to the best of my recollection was held at the request of the foreign investors. In that meeting, at which I was present as the representative of the project, Mr. Ornstein raised doubts about the feasibility of the project, and Mr. Shmuel Mordechai did not express opposition to granting the approved plant status.
"Following this meeting, we continued to discuss the matter with the professional team of the Investment Center until the approval was received. We never asked the minister to advance the project. My whole activity was with the staff of the Investment Center. My professional work as a lawyer was done vis-a-vis the Investment Center on a substantive, professional basis. As a result, a capital-intensive plant with foreign investment was established in Dimona for the first time in years."
Concerning the Shemen company, attorney Messer writes: "Shemen Industries, through its former managing director, Boaz Zafrir, whom I have known and represented for many years, received legal advice from me on various subjects concerning levies. Shemen had complaints about the size of the levies that were set and to that end the company approached the Industry and Trade Ministry through a lobbyist. I took part in one meeting at which there were many participants. The company's position was represented by the managing director, Zafrir. Also at the meeting were external professionals on behalf of Shemen, including myself, as the managing director's longtime lawyer."
Concerning activity by Olmert's staff to promote the projects he dealt with, Messer says, "I do not recall asking anyone in Mr. Olmert's bureau to promote projects connected to me."
As to Asicom and the allegation that he told a company official that he would bypass the Investment Center "from above," Messer writes: "Totally unfounded. The directors of Asicom have a monetary dispute with me and their allegations are tendentious and baseless. My professional acquaintance with Mr. Shmuel Mordechai goes back years, and in all these years, as in this case, my activity was purely professional."