Last update - 00:00 10/08/2007
Tel Aviv court extends remand of developer Heftsiba`s CFO
By Jonathan Lis, Etti Aflalo and Carmel Ben-Zur, Haaretz Correspondents
The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court on Friday extended by seven days the remand of Ze'ev Tanenbaum, the former Chief Financial Officer for the property developer Heftsiba.
Heftsiba went bankrupt last week, leaving around 500 families that bought apartments from it with neither their apartments nor bank guarantees.
Tanenbaum was arrested Friday morning by fraud squad officers, as part of an investigation into suspected fraud and irregularities by the developer.
It was claimed in court that police have gathered a significant amount of evidence linking the CFO to alleged violations.
Tanenbaum is suspected of theft, fraud, corporate breach of trust, conspiracy to commit fraud, false registration of corporate documents as well as violations relating to money laundering, banking securities and sales law.
Police are investigating all senior Heftsiba management figures for these these suspected crimes.
Major General Yohanan Danino, head of the police's investigations branch, ordered the fraud squad Thursday night to launch a criminal probe into the Heftsiba affair. Police subsequently raided the company's offices.
On Friday, state prosecution representatives held talks with Tax Authority officials over the affair. The two groups listed Heftsiba's assets in order to outline the various state bodies' jurisdictions in the investigation.
The probe will examine a number of possibly criminal aspects of the company's collapse. These include suspected embezzlement, specifically the depositing of checks directly into the bank account of Heftsiba's owner, Boaz Yonah.
Police are to conduct the investigation both covertly and overtly, and will also check the actions of company figures other than Yonah. Police said they are aware of Yonah's whereabouts, but will not release the information to the public.