Last update - 00:00 13/06/2007
Shas MK arrested at airport with tens of thousands in cash and checks
By Yair Ettinger and Eti Aflalo, Haaretz Correspondents
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Wednesday opened an investigation in collaboration with the National Fraud Investigative Unit into MK Haim Amsalam (Shas). Amsalam was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning by tax agents at Ben-Gurion International Airport while carrying a suitcase that contained $40,000 in cash and checks totaling over 130,000 Euros.
According to regulations against fraud, a citizen who enters Israel carrying more than NIS 80,000 must declare the money to customs authorities. Amsalam instead chose to pass through the "green" line reserved for passengers who are not carrying goods they need to declare.
When customs workers asked to check Amsalam's luggage, they found twice the amount of money one is permitted to enter Israel with undeclared.
Before he entered the Knesset, Amsalam lived in Geneva where he served as the chief rabbi of the city's Jewish Community. According to Amsalam, he had just returned from Switzerland, where he went to liquidate a business he owned there and the money he was carrying came solely from his Swiss bank account.
Amsalam said his arrest was merely "a technical mishap that will be sorted out by the proper authorities."