The trustee of Hebrew daily "Ma'ariv" will today ask the Jerusalem District Court for additional authority to allow him to take up the post. Fundamentally, he will ask to manage the newspaper as a shell and to offer it for sale for the highest possible price. He will also ask to send the employees on unpaid leave, effective immediately.
The filing of the motion was made possible after "Ma'ariv" publisher Shlomo Ben-Tzvi fulfilled the court's order and deposited NIS 2 million in the trust account. In the past two days, trustee nominee Chen Berdachev has examined the cash flow at Ben-Tzvi's two newspapers that are under a stay of proceedings: "Ma'ariv" and "Makor Rishon", after the court forbade the sale of "Makor Rishon" to another company. As a result, the national religious newspaper is in the same legal status as "Ma'ariv".
In view of the review of the newspapers, the cash flow available to Berdachev is insufficient to keep them running in their present condition, and their operations will be slashed to the bare bones to maintain them as going concerns, but not necessarily as thriving or attractive businesses. The stay of proceedings is for two months.
Berdachev will also ask the court for accounting authority and an administrative free hand, signatory rights to open a bank account, responsibility for credit, and control over employee management, including sending employees who are not critical for publishing the basic newspaper on unpaid leave.
Berdachev is responsible to "Ma'ariv's" creditors and they will decide its fate. If they seek its sale from Ben-Tzvi, Berdachev will do it. "Ma'ariv's" employees told Berdachev at a meeting that they were worried that Ben-Tzvi would try to transfer the newspaper's assets to other companies and implored him to keep the newspaper out of Ben-Tzvi's hands.
In a separate development, 40 "Ma'ariv" employees have filed a complaint with the police in Tel Aviv against Ben-Tzvi for fraud. They claim that the money deducted from their salaries was not deposited in their pension accounts.
Ben-Tzvi's aides have been unavailable for comment.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 11, 2014
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