Last update - 00:00 25/12/2006
Ex-Shas MK Ofer Hugi convicted of embezzling state funds
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent
A former Knesset member for the ultra-Orthodox Shas party was Monday convicted of defrauding money from two state ministries. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Ofer Hugi, 44, was found guilty of a number of serious offences, including aggravated forgery, using forged documents, receiving items through fraudulent means, false registration of a corporation and attempting to receive items through fraudulent means.
On the first count, Hugi was found guilty of setting up a fictitious college, in order to receive funds from the Ministry of Labor and Welfare.
At the end of the 1990s, Hugi established a technical college with the backing of the Labor and Welfare Ministry. He gave the ministry a list of students and teachers and in return received hundreds of thousands of shekels for the running of the college.
It was soon claimed, however, that the lists of students and teachers were fictitious and that no one was studying there.
The presiding judge ruled that, "The full extend of the evidence presented before the courts demonstrates the defendant's intensive activities regarding the technological college, including visiting the site, office meetings, as well as handling the bank accounts ? including the false presentations."
Hugi was also convicted of fraudulently receiving Education Ministry funding for student transportation. Hugi was convicted of falsely reporting the number of students and the distance traveled, and thus significantly increased the funding he received.
The former MK was also convicted of falsifying tenders in order to award them to a company he owns. Hugi forged false offers from other companies, which were of course higher than the offer his company was making.
Hugi was also convicted of falsifying company documents in order to evade income tax, by recording a fictitious salary for his wife.
Hugi is a close associate of Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, former head of Or Hahayim Yeshiva. Elbaz and Shas MK Shlomo Benizri are currently charged with accepting bribes, breach of trust, and obstruction of justice for allegedly receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from contractor Moshe Sela in exchange for inside information on foreign workers. Benizri was minister of labor and welfare during the time of the alleged infractions.