www.bethelfinance.com
In a huge blow to prosecutors, the Tel Aviv District Court this morning acquitted Adv. Jacob Weinroth on all bribery and money laundering charges in the Shuki Vita affair. At the same time, the court convicted former Tel Aviv District tax assessor Vita on three counts of fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes. The decisions came almost two years after Weinroth and Vita were indicted.
Judge Gilad Neuthal said, "Adv. Weinroth's conduct was not necessarily extraordinary or beneficial. Weinroth lacked the necessary mens rea for conviction of bribery."
In the indictment, the prosecutors charged that Weinroth and Vita established a corrupt relationship that deepened over time. The relationship began in 2000, when Vita approached Weinroth to represent him in proceedings relating to Vita's lack of promotion due to an earlier conviction in the late 1990s of assaulting an Income Tax Commission auditor.
According to the prosecution, beginning in 2003, Weinroth had his own interest in a relationship with Vita, who as a tax assessor, could approve tax agreements for Weinroth's wealthy clients, including Arcadi Gaydamak and Mikhail Chernoy. Weinroth earned NIS 30 million in fees from these two clients. The prosecution charged that Weinroth agreed to represent Vita for free in exchange for services.
Weinroth was charged under Article 3 (B) of the Law for the Prevention of Money Laundering Law (5760-2000). The prosecutors said he broke the law in order to prevent the seizure of funds of Arcadi Gaydamak by opening a bank account in his own name without citing Gaydamak as the account's real beneficiary.
No comments:
Post a Comment