Police officers from the national fraud squad have arrested 14 people, including a number of government employees, over alleged involvement in the transfer of personal information obtained from government files.

The information was allegedly sold to private investigators.

The government employees suspected in the affair were privy to personal information on members of the public as part of their work in branches such as the National Insurance Institute and the Tax Authority.

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The suspects also include several private investigators who allegedly paid for the information.

All 14 suspects were to appear Wednesday morning at Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court for an expected remand extension.

Police have carried out widespread searches at the offices of the private investigators, as well as at the offices of the state employees suspected in the case.

In April 2006, the Tax Authority filed a complaint with the fraud squad, claiming that personal information was being leaked from their offices to private detectives.

An undercover investigation into the matter raised a strong suspicion that several workers had transferred databases containing personal information to a middle-man who then sold them to private investigators.

The investigation also uncovered a similar modus operandi at the NII. Police are now looking into suspicions that the same type of criminal activity is also taking place in other government departments.