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Background / Scandals linked to Olmert
By Haaretz Service
Tags: Ehud Olmert

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announcement on Wednesday that he would not submit his candidacy for the Kadima party leadership, effectively resigning his post in two months time, was made against the backdrop of a number of scandals with which he has been linked in recent years.

Allegations of improprieties linked to the purchase of his home on Cremieux Street in Jerusalem, the Talansky affair, and "Rishon Tours" have dogged the premier of late.

Rishon Tours
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Police investigators suspect that the Olmert family took dozens of trips abroad which were paid for with funds from an account Olmert kept with the Rishon Tours travel agency in Rishon Letzion.

"We are talking about many family trips of at least two family members at a time, for example mother and daughter, or two of the children, whose travel expenses were covered by the account in Rishon Tours," law enforcement sources said.

"In the Rishon Tours affair, the case is unequivocally substantiated and by all appearances it will result in an indictment," sources said.

Police who flew to the United States to gather evidence in the case came away with findings which sources termed "satisfactory."

Olmert was first investigated on suspicions that third parties were improperly financing family trips abroad as far back as 1991, when the premier served as a Likud member of Knesset. The investigation failed to yield sufficient evidence for an indictment.

Talansky affair

Police are investigating allegations that Olmert illegally received funds while serving in his various governmental positions in the years prior to his ascendancy to the premiership.

As minister of industry and trade (2003 - 2006) and as mayor of Jerusalem (1993 - 2003), Olmert is alleged to have accepted significant sums of money, both directly and indirectly, from at least one third party. The amount of cash given to Olmert is estimated to exceed hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Bank Leumi affair

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was questioned under caution in October of last year over changes he made in the tender that was announced as part of the privatization of Bank Leumi.

Olmert served as acting finance minister and oversaw the tender process. Police anti-fraud investigators questioned Olmert at his residence in Jerusalem. The allegations were eventually dropped.

Small Business Authority and the Investments Center affair

The Uri Messer-Investments Center affair and the cronyism allegations
in the Small Business Authority - two sub-units of the Ministry of
Industry and Trade, which Olmert headed - were investigated as part of
a widescale investigation conducted by the state comptroller. The
probe even yielded reports on the matter.

The Messer-Investments Center affair, which was first reported in
Haaretz, revolves around allegations that then-Industry and Trade
Minister Olmert granted personal favors to his old law partner, Uri
Messer, who was acting on behalf of a company, an act which would
constitute a conflict of interest, breach of trust, and fraud.

In his investigation of the Small Business Authority affair, the state
comptroller found that during Olmert's tenure as industry and trade
minister, "appointments were made out of political considerations and
as a result of an improper [hiring] process" by "senior officials in
charge of the industry and trade ministry in order to curry favor with
political associates belonging to the party of then-minister Olmert."

Olmert's house on Cremieux Street

Olmert purchased a home on Cremieux Street in Jerusalem for which he is thought to have paid well below market value. In return, Olmert is suspected of using his position as mayor of Jerusalem to extend favors for the contracting company "Alumot," the firm which built his home. The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing in the matter.


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