The Israel Tax Authority has imposed a NIS 850,000 financial sanction on food importer Neto M.E. Holdings (TASE: NTO) chairman David Ezra. The penalty comes nearly two years after Ezra was stopped at Ben Gurion airport with €475,000 in cash in his suitcase that he was taking abroad without having notified the customs authorities.
The sanction was revealed in a file of decisions published today by the Israel Tax Authority's committee on imposing financial sanctions on violations and non-reporting to customs on bringing money in and out of Israel in 2022. There were 253 such decisions with financial sanctions totaling more than NIS 2 million imposed. 26% of the violations took place at Ben Gurion airport, 45% at border crossings to Jordan and 23% at the Taba border crossing to Egypt. Ezra's was the biggest sanction imposed for 2022.
Under the Money Laundering Law bringing more than NIS 50,000 in or out of Israel's airports or seaports, or more than NIS 12,000 in or out of land border crossings must be reported to the Israel Tax Authority.
Ezra, who was traveling to Corfu in Greece in June 2022, told the authorities that he had bought a house in Corfu for €2.8 million and that the cash was to make the last payment to the building contractor and others who had renovated the house. When asked why he hadn't simply transferred the money to the bank accounts of the Greek contractor and building professionals, Ezra said that by paying cash he had hoped to receive a discount.
The committee looked gravely on Ezra's plan to pay cash in order to get a discount because on the face of it seemed like an undeclared payment, all of it or part of it, to the Greek tax authorities.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 10, 2024.
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