Tel Aviv District Court Judge (taxation) Magen Altuvia has ordered Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) to disclose to the bank's minority shareholders all the documents for the loans granted by the bank to businessman Eliezer Fishman, minutes of its board meetings at which the loans were discussed and approved, valuations for Fishman's assets, audits, and any other document pertaining to the Fishman group's debt and loans from 2006 until the present time. The court law week declared Fishman bankrupt. The documents can be used for consideration of derivative claim by shareholders against Bank Hapoalim's management and board of directors.
Altuvia based his decision about disclosure of Fishman's agreement and loans with the bank on Fishman's statements to the court in his bankruptcy case, which indicated that the Fishman group suffered heavy losses as early as 2006, and its economic situation had materially changed. "Despite this," Altuvia wrote, "it appears to me that the bank's (Bank Hapoalim, E. L.-W.) managers did not see fit to stop credit to the Fishman group and reduce the bank's exposure to the group's business."
The ruling was given in the framework of a petition by Moshe Aharoni, a minority shareholder in Bank Hapoalim, for the disclosure of all the documents pertaining to credit, loans and any other agreement with the Fishman group in order to consider whether grounds exist for a request for approval of a derivative claim against the bank's officeholders and board of directors during the relevant period, including former chairman Yair Seroussi, former CEO Zion Keinan, board member Efrat Peled, and other directors in respect of their actions in providing credit and loans to Fishman and the companies with which he was involved, whose debt to the bank is estimated at NIS 8 billion.
Altuvia said that documents submitted to the court by Bank Hapoalim in its response to the petition "indicate ostensible faults in the actions of the bank's managers with respect to two matters pertaining to credit or loans granted to Eliezer Fishman and the companies in his group."
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on June 25, 2017
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