Police raid Trade Ministry in widening Olmert probe - Haaretz - Israel News
Morris Talansky leaving the police investigation bureau on Monday. (Nir Kafri)
Last update - 17:19 13/05/2008
Police raid Trade Ministry in widening Olmert probe
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent and The Associated Press
Tags: Olmert, Bribe
Fraud squad detectives on Tuesday raided the Ministry of Trade and Industry in a bid to find documents in the widening corruption investigation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said investigators from the National Fraud Unit raided the offices in connection with the Olmert investigation. Olmert headed the ministry from 2003 to 2006, before he became prime minister.
Olmert is suspected of illicitly accepting large sums of cash from the Jewish American businessman and fund-raiser Morris Talansky. Some of the donations are believed to have taken place during Olmert's 10-year tenure as mayor of Jerusalem.
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On Monday, police raided the offices of the Jerusalem municipality, also searching for evidence in the probe.
Detectives Monday were looking for evidence that during his tenure as Jerusalem mayor, Olmert, had given an American businessman benefits or other assistance in exchange for bribes.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said fraud squad detectives had seized documents that were connected to Olmert's tenure as mayor from 1993 to 2003, but had no further details on their contents.
Police are also looking for material indicating that Olmert had instructed city officials to act for Talansky even after Olmert left the mayor's office to become industry, trade and employment minister.
Olmert is suspected, among other things, of using his influence to pressure Jerusalem officials to place speed bumps on the street where Talansky's children and grandchildren live, at Talansky's request.
The fraud squad on Monday questioned Talansky again over the affair.
Sources involved in the probe told Haaretz that the investigation was currently focused on Olmert's tenure as industry and trade minister in the government of former prime minister Ariel Sharon not on the mayoral election campaigns in which Olmert participated, the funding for which he said he had received from Talansky.
The sources said that so far police have not found evidence that Talansky had received anything from Olmert that could be seen as an exchange for the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the American fund-raiser had reportedly given Olmert over the years.
Police do not rule out the possibility that Talansky had given Olmert the money without asking for anything specific in return, perhaps expecting Olmert to advance his business interests in Israel at some point in the future.
Talansky denies having any business in Israel or plans to conduct business in Israel in the future.
Police sources said the search in the municipality could lead to documents that would shed a light on the transactions between Talansky and Olmert over the years.
However, Haaretz has also learned that the debts of an organization that
campaigned for Olmert's election as mayor of Jerusalem were covered from the funds received from Talansky.
The police were surprised on Monday to learn of Olmert's scheduled trips to the United States at the end of the month and to Egypt. They fear that
Olmert's tight schedule, including hosting U.S. President George Bush this week, will leave no time to question the prime minister thoroughly before Talansky gives his early testimony, scheduled in two weeks.
The detectives had hoped to use Olmert's testimony to corroborate the
suspicions against him on the basis of Talansky's testimony.
Talansky is expected to leave Israel on May 21. "If it is not possible to
receive Olmert's in-depth testimony before the court hears Talansky's early testimony, our chances of examining the suspicions against Olmert and establishing sufficient evidence will be severely impaired," a source close to the investigation said on Monday.
How is there supposed to be peace, when the highest levels of the israeli goverment are morally and ethically void....
