The state prosecutor may be planning to indict business mogul Arcadi Gaydamak for money laundering, based on a request it submitted to the Tel Aviv District Court on Monday.

In the request, the state sought permission to continue holding $4.9 million belonging to Gaydamak, to enable it to confiscate this sum should he eventually be convicted.

And, in an unrelated case, police questioned Gaydamak on Monday on suspicion of giving Shula Zaken, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's bureau chief, free season tickets to Beitar Jerusalem soccer matches.

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In 2005, news broke of an undercover police investigation into suspicions of massive money laundering via Bank Hapoalim's Yarkon Street branch in Tel Aviv. Among those questioned in the affair was Gaydamak, a Russian-Israeli businessman who announced earlier this month that he is forming his own political party.

Gaydamak was suspected of using a front man, Nahum Galmor, to launder money for him at the bank.

In November 2005, the state put a lien on Gaydamak's account at the branch, which contained $900,000. Later, he was asked to post a $1-million bond, and still later, when he wanted to travel abroad while the investigation was still under way, he was required to post an additional $3 million as a guarantee of his return.

The prosecution held a hearing for Gaydamak last September, but to date has announced no decision on whether to indict him. However, the state has now held the $4.9 million it obtained from him for 450 days, the maximum period during which it can legally hold bond money. Thus, the request to the court for permission to continue holding the money.

Gaydamak's attorneys claim that this indicates a decision by the prosecutor to indict, as it would otherwise have no reason not to release the funds.

But prosecutors Liran Haim and Tali Najari refused to confirm this.

They did say that the prosecution has asked the police to investigate additional aspects of the case, and only when this supplemental probe is completed will a decision be made on whether to indict.

Gaydamak's attorneys initially opposed the state's request, saying that it was illegal as long as no decision has been made to indict.

"This is pure persecution," said one of them, Shlomo Ben-Arie. "The investigation has been going on for six years now; if they had evidence, they would have filed an indictment long ago. It is clear that if the subject were not Gaydamak, this would have ended long ago."

Subsequently, however, his attorneys offered to let the state keep the money for another 90 days, in exchange for a prosecution pledge that if an indictment follows, no additional bail will be demanded.

The prosecution is slated to respond to this offer on Tuesday.

In the new investigation, involving the soccer tickets, police are seeking to establish whether Gaydamak, as the team's owner, was involved in offering the tickets to Zaken and whether she obtained them for free.

The suspicions arose after detectives who searched Zaken's home as part of an investigation into alleged corruption at the Tax Authority found three tickets to Beitar matches.

The questioning of Gaydamak was cut short after he told detectives that he had to leave for a prior engagement.

He was instructed to return this morning to complete his testimony.