Meir Rabin and Eli Simhayoff - complete sentence

Among the judgment decisions rendered today (Tuesday), the sentence of two Haredi defendants was given too: Defendant #5 - Meir Rabin - 5 years' imprisonment, a fine of five hundred thousand NIS, forfeiture of property worth 500 thousand NIS, and defendant 10 - Eliezer Simhayoff - 3.5 years in prison, a fine of 300 thousand NIS , forfeiture of property worth 165 thousand NIS .

Meir Rabin, personal assistant to state witness Shmuel Dachner, was convicted in the Court decision of four counts which gather at two different events relating to brokering with bribes totaling NIS 1,395,000 million (present value NIS 1.8 million), in addition t being convicted of the Prohibition of Money Laundering .

Judge David Rosen noted that Rabin "served throughout the relevant period as the right hand and confidant to the state witness. Throughout the period, they proceeded with full cooperation as one unit. They tracked the 'goals', namely public employees facing crossroads of decisions and their intervention was required to advance the project. The two determined the amounts of bribes to each and every target and transferred the amounts in different ways to destinations marked by them. Rabin worked together with the state witness and helped him in realizing his "bribery" actions in a way of picking checks for amounts of millions of shekels and transferring bribe money by way of cash and other means. Later on, he also learned to act independently in this area, with the State witness at his side, helping to give a 'logistic backing'.

Meir Rabin was a man who transferred the bribe money to objectives, cashed the money at 'change points', gave the money and checks. As stated in the verdict, the state witness clearly described the activities of the defendant: "They were a well-oiled and sophisticated machine, the two transferred together millions of shekels over years to public servants." Regarding Simchayof it was ruled: "A corrupted connection of three, who operated jointly - the state witness, Meir Rabin and Eliezer Simhayoff.

"It is important to note", said the judge, "in Rabin 's case, that Yaakov Efrati was acquitted due to doubt, given the significance of this sweeping activity of Rabin. Additionally, similar to the above case of the accused, it was not proven in the court that Rabin's activities led to the provision of benefits and departure from the norm Additionally, it was not proven how much of the total amount of money given to him were passed at the end of the procedure for public servants."

Judge Rosen further added, that Rabin "gained benefits which are worth money and excellent wage terms from the state witness for his work and activities in performing tasks imposed on him by the witness. However, it is important to stress that it has not been shown how much of the total bribe money which lay in his hands were kept by him, if any".

In light of all this, the judge concluded stating "For all the events of which he was convicted, as described above, after weighing all the considerations and gave real weight to the fact that the defendant accepted a high and honorable bribe, but he himself was not a public servant, and it was not proved how much of the money he received remained in his pocket at the end of the procedure, if any, I am cutting the sentence as follows: seven years' imprisonment, of which five years of actual imprisonment, less 34 days of his arrest, and the remainder on probation, that he will not commit for three years any of the offenses of which he was convicted.

"A fine of five hundred thousand NIS or one year in jail, the fine is payable in 10 consecutive monthly installments, starting from 01/06/14. Forfeiture under section 297 of the Penal Code is applicable for the giver of bribes, but the forfeiture shall be given here - under Article 21 (a) of Money Laundering Law: In view of the significant prison sentence and monetary fine, I ordered the forfeiture of property worth 500 thousand NIS.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!