Last update - 00:00 16/11/2007
Jerusalem tax, city employees arrested for taking bribes
By Eti Aflalo, Haaretz Correspondent
Six Israel Tax Authority (ITA) employees and one from the Jerusalem municipality are under suspicion of accepting bribes in return for providing income and property tax breaks.
The seven were arrested by the police's fraud squad on Wednesday, and the Jerusalem Magistrates Court lifted the gag order on publication of the affair Thursday.
The seven are suspected of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust.
Jerusalem Tax Assessor Yitzhak Borstein was also questioned and released but is now on two weeks vacation as a result.
The investigation started after the ITA's internal audit department approached the police. It had found suspicions of corruption in the Jerusalem office, and the police planted an undercover agent, an Israeli Arab accountant, to gather information. The agent worked for months and gathered evidence.
The Tax Authority employees are suspected of receiving bribes and other benefits from businessmen who wanted to reduce their income tax, as well as having property liens canceled, investigations closed and even receiving income tax refunds.
The city employee is suspected of similarly reducing property tax bills.
On Wednesday the police raided the Tax Authority offices in Jerusalem and confiscated documents and computer files.
The police said that they are continuing their investigation and more arrests are expected.
The ITA employees arrested are tax collectors and various supervisors.
They were remanded Thursday by the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court; three, Gil Yehezkel Abrahamof, Moshe Alkalai and Ehud Cahana were remanded until Sunday; one, Moshe Tobol, until Friday; and one, Ovadia Morag, was released on bail. The sixth, Attaf Barhum, was remanded on Wednesday for a week, while the Jerusalem municipal employee, Ahmad Samarra, was to be held until Friday.
The ITA responded: "The investigation started with information passed to the police by the internal audit unit of the authority. The ITA will continue to aid the police as needed to determine the truth. The question of ethics is in our eyes the highest of values and certainly in a law enforcement organization. The authority continuously acts, in cooperation with the Israel Police, to expose any example of unethical behavior, if such exists, and to eradicate it."