Hadar Saltzman, a travel agent employed by the Rishon Tours Company, testified in court on Tuesday that on a number of occasions, she was instructed to double bill travel tickets for Ehud Olmert. She explained that Shula Zaken, who was Olmert’s bureau chief, at times requested numerous bills for the same travel arrangements.

“Whatever I did was in compliance with Olmert’s office” Saltzman told the court after the prosecution asked why she double billed and who instructed her to do so.

The state showed the court a number of bills submitted by Olmert’s office to various organizations, pointing out the bills and the adjoining itinerary did not jibe with Olmert’s actual travels. All of them contained hand-written notes describing the actual destinations and dates.

Attorney Yaakov Tzaban questioned if there are other bills, not the hand written variety. Saltzman explained that yes, there are, adding the hand written ones do not include the name of an airline, dates or destinations, permitting one to write what one wishes.

“If there is a special request, than hand-written bills are issued” she explained. She added that in most cases, when one orders travel tickets, an automated receipt is issued. The number of cases in which hand written receipts are requested is rare she told the court.

Olmert and Zaken area alleged to have illegally acquired $92,164 in the double billing scheme.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)