Up until 2000, two government companies, Israel Aircraft Industries and Elbit, raised capital in New York for its company, ImageSat, selling intelligence space on Israeli satellites. One of the investors was Morris Talansky, but all investors were promised a near carte blanche on recruiting customers. In 2002, the investors had sold Venezuela $18 million in satellite space and were working hard on Russia and Angola. Since the US dislikes Venezuela with a flaming passion, the Israelis backed out of the sales recruitment clauses of the contract and threatened the backers with huge losses. So they sued the Israelis.
At a shareholders meeting, one investor, Morris Talansky must have said, "I have an insider in Israel. I`ve been funneling him money for eight years. He`s on the verge of becoming a major government player and he`ll do anything for money." In January 2003, Olmert acquired the two government cabinet posts required to change the errant satellite policies; Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, and even more direct, Minister of Communications, in charge of the satellite industry. With their man in the right place, the bribes from ImageSat`s New York board started flowing to Olmert`s bag man, Uri Messer in amounts we can only estimate, but the leaks say hundreds of thousands of dollars. That may be proven bribes |
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