The former chief of staff of the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin is not to be charged in an ongoing corruption case in Romania, newspapers in Romania reported last week.

Shimon Sheves was named last year by Romanian prosecutors investigating illicit real estate deals that allegedly cost the state nearly $150 million. Sheves denied the allegations at the time.

Judicial sources in Bucharest had said they believed Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz, a mining magnate, as well as the Israeli political consultant Tal Ziberstein, and Sheves, conspired with the Romanian businessman Remus Truica to illicitly bring about the transfer of state-held lands to another Romanian citizen, the Romania Libera daily reported at the time.

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Last week, however, Israeli media quoted reports in Romania to the effect that Sheves will not be indicted, had not been questioned, and that the case against him would be closed.