Singer Margalit Tzanani arrested for extortion

She allegedly contacted organized crime boss Amir Mulner to threaten her agent Assaf Atedgi, who owes her money, to pay up.

Several members of Mulner's gang were also arrested.

Tzanani and other detainees will be brought before the Rishon LeZion Magistrates Court for remand this afternoon.

For the past five years, Tzanani has been a judge on "A Star is Born", the local version of American Idol. She also caused controversy by denouncing the tent protesters on Tel Aviv's Rothschild Boulevard.

"The protest isn't real. Some of the protest leaders have a grandmother who simply didn’t bequeath them an apartment on Basel [a luxury street in north Tel Aviv]. It's impossible to buy an apartment for 20 years? I don’t buy it," she said. She later retracted and appeared before Saturday night's protest in Beersheva.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 16, 2011

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011