There are now allegations that Binyamin Ben-Eliezer received money from a second businessman. The former Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister has been questioned under caution by police about receiving money from businessman Avraham Nanikashvili and there are now reports that police have questioned another businessman who confessed handing hundreds of thousands of shekels to Ben-Eliezer.
The man in question is a property magnate and owner of a construction company with offices in Israel and around the world. He was questioned under caution about sums of money given to Ben-Eliezer on two occasions. On the first occasion in 2011, the money was transferred directly to Ben-Eliezer's bank account to help him buy a property.
In return for the payment, it is suspected that Ben-Eliezer opened doors in Egypt by using his contacts. The police reportedly have incontrovertible evidence about the transfer of the money. Ben-Eliezer is reportedly being questioned for the fourth time and has no plausible explanation about these new sums of money.
Ben-Eliezer's office said in response, "We don't relate to fragments of tendentious information and interested parties making leaks about the investigation. Ben-Eliezer has passed onto the investigators all the information in his possession, responded to every question asked and denied the groundless claims."
Over last weekend it was published that the FBI questioned Ben-Eliezer's son Ofir in the US and that Israel Police have asked permission to travel to the US to interview him. Ben-Eliezer claims that $450,000 of the $500,000 in cash found in a safety deposit box in a Jerusalem bank came from his son.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 26, 2014
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