Lahav 433 police officers detained seven suspects for questioning for allegedly defrauding the state by receiving payments as part of the war evacuation grants for evacuation from northern Israel, despite never having lived in the north, the police announced on Monday.
According to reports, the suspects were arrested in the cities of Elad, Beitar Illit, Tzfas, and Jerusalem.
Investigators from the National Unit for Economic Crime at Lahav 433, together with the Investigations Division of the National Insurance Institute, conducted a large-scale covert investigation in recent months into the suspects on suspicion of bribery, aggravated fraud, conspiracy to commit a crime, and other serious financial offenses.
According to the suspicions, several suspects conspired and bribed an employee of the Population and Immigration Authority to change their registered home addresses to locations in northern Israel in order to create a false impression that they had been evacuated from communities along the northern border during the war.
By means of this false representation, the suspects allegedly obtained compensation and financial assistance unlawfully, as part of the evacuation grant paid by the National Insurance Institute.
The police say these are serious suspicions that damaged the public coffers by millions of shekels, particularly in light of the fact that the alleged acts were carried out during a period of national emergency and wartime.
The suspicions include offenses of bribery, obtaining something by fraud under aggravated circumstances, conspiracy to commit a crime, and other serious financial offenses.
Police officials noted that the investigation is still in its early stages.
Subject to developments in the investigation, the suspects will be brought before the Petach Tikva Magistrate’s Court for remand hearings.
“The Israel Police in general, and the National Unit for the Fight Against Economic Crime at Lahav 433 in particular, will continue to act in cooperation with the National Insurance Institute to expose offenses of this kind and to bring all those involved to justice,” the police stated.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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One Response
The headline serves no purpose but to get people to assume it’s religious people involved off the bat and be angry at them. How about first see who they are and then we’ll care about what city they’re from