Matza's decisions seemed dodgy, testifies investigator

A top tax official testified in court yesterday that he thought "alien interests" had swayed decisions by former tax commissioner Jacky Matza. Matza was indicted on corruption charges in respect to appointments at the Tax Authority during his term as head. He denies malfeasance.

The testimony of Eli Yitzhaki, a Tax Authority investigator, related to the period in which Matza served as head of investigations, before being promoted to the top post.

Yitzhaki said that he often felt Matza was thwarting investigations that Yitzhaki had thought were necessary. At some point Yitzhaki began consulting not only with his superior, Matza, but with the prosecution as well.

"Then on the one hand the prosecution would say, investigate, and on the other hand Jacky would say, don't investigate," Yitzhaki told the court yesterday. "There were conversations like that all the time."

While at first he and Matza saw eye to eye, Yitzhaki said, he began to think that Matza's decisions were wrong.

"At some point I reached the conclusion that I had to work with the prosecution more, to see if I was mistaken," he said yesterday.

Matza is charged with making sweetheart appointments at the Tax Authority at the behest of businessmen Kobi Ben-Gur and Yoram Karashi. The latter is the brother of Shula Zaken, who was secretary to Ehud Olmert.

Yesterday tapes of secretly recorded conversations were played in court. In one, from March 2006, Ben-Gur is heard pressing Matza to promote Amos Shimonov to a high position in the Tax Authority investigations branch in Tel Aviv.

Shimonov, who wanted the job, had contacted his brother-in-law Avraham Natan (a former civil service commissioner), who in turn contacted his friend Ben-Gur.

On the tape Ben-Gur is heard saying to Matza, "I told you [Shimonov] applied for the tender but Yitzhaki has somebody else. So you told me, talk with Shmulik [Bobrov, another tax official who is on trial for corruption]. He didn't know anything. The tender is tomorrow. I don't want anything to go wrong. It would create a big problem for me."

Matza is then heard saying, "Let me make a phone call. I'm not promising [anything]."

Ben-Gur: "Deal with it and get back to me. I don't want any surprises."

Yitzhaki said yesterday that he had not felt any particular pressure in regard to the specific tender referred to in the phone call.