Last update - 00:00 31/01/2007
Police investigate MK Ruhama Avraham over fraud allegations
By Jonathan Lis and Guy Lashem, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service
Knesset Member Ruhama Avraham (Kadima) was questioned by police Tuesday over allegations of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
The allegations are related to flights Avraham took in the summer of 2004 to Belgium and the United States along with MK Eli Aflalo, which were mostly paid for by the Agrexco company.
The questioning were carried out by the National Unit for Fraud Investigation in Bat Yam and continued for several hours. The police have stated that Avraham cooperated fully with the investigation, the details of which were withheld until Wednesday.
In October of last year, TheMarker reported that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz had instructed police to open an investigation of Avraham and the agricultural export company Agrexco and its CEO, Shlomo Tirosh.
Mazuz also told the Police Investigations Division to investigate Tirosh for offering bribes to Avraham and MK Eli Aflalo, also of Kadima. The National Fraud Squad was placed in charge of the investigation.
Last November, TheMarker revealed that Avraham and Aflalo, then Likud MKs, traveled overseas at Agrexco's expense. The two flew to Belgium and the U.S. in the summer of 2004, even though the year before the Knesset Ethics Committee forbade them to travel overseas at the company's expense.
The cost of the trip was $6,800, and additional expenses for the two added up to $4,388.
"It is possible that an innocent mistake was made," Avraham said. Since then the two lawmakers have paid back the cost of the trips.
Agrexco is 50 percent owned by the state, with the other half owned by the various agricultural production and marketing boards.
The state comptroller examined the affair after it was exposed. He determined that Tirosh expected some form of quid pro quo in return for the trip. Tirosh asked for their assistance in advancing Agrexco's interests in the Knesset at the time: saving the company large expenses on security checks for the agricultural cargo it was exporting.
Avraham worked to call a special meeting of the Knesset Interior Committee, which dealt with the matter, even though she was not a member of that committee. She even chaired part of the meeting. All this came a short time after the free trip.
Avraham's activities, and the fact that she did not inform the members of the committee of the trip, all bolstered the suspicions of bribe-taking.
The Justice Ministry said: "After examining the state comptroller's report on the matter, it was decided by the attorney general and state prosecutor to open a criminal investigation on the suspicion of accepting bribes and breach of trust; and against Agrexco and its CEO on suspicion of offering bribes."