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חשיפה: הגוף הביטחוני שכמה מבכיריו נאשמים בשערוריית השוחד בהיקף עשרות מיליוני שקלים הוא המוסד

חשיפה: החקירה הפלילית נגד האסיר נוחי דנקנר נפתחה לאחר שאסיר אחר התלונן כי דנקנר תקף אותו מינית בכלא

One of Israel’s most flamboyant business figures, Nochi Dankner, who is serving a three-year sentence for stock fraud, was accused of sexual assault by his cellmate. Dankner was at one time ranked by Forbes as the 11th wealthiest Israeli. He owned the IDB Group, which had interests in petrochemicals, telecom, insurance, banking, airlines and media. When he was flying high, their net worth was $100-billion. After failed investments led to an attempt to raise capital, Dankner was accused of fraud by artificially inflating the price of his stock. In addition to his jail sentence, he was fined $200-million. The financier appealed his conviction to the Israeli Supreme Court, which rejected it, adding an additional year to the two years the lower court judge had given him.

Dankner had been housed in a “luxury” wing of the prison built originally to house former PM Olmert during his prison stay. It had also held former Pres. Moshe Katsav. The police are investigating the incident and have moved Dankner to another prison, where he is in solitary confinement. Under Israel’s outdated media laws, Israeli journalists may only report Dankner was accused of a “severe crime.” They cannot report he was accused of sexual assault. But I can.

Dankner was not publicly “out” as gay. Though in this radio interview, which was removed from the web by police order, a reporter does allude at about the 4:30-minute mark that the reason the charge against him cannot be reported is related to a law protecting individual privacy. He uses a specific example of someone who is “in the closet” and doesn’t want to be outed as gay. Given the additional reported information that the jail sentence for the offense is ten years, it’s clear that the charge being investigated is either rape or sexual assault.

This is once again an example of Israel’s totally outdated legal system and the enslavement of the media to it. Who cares whether Nochi Dankner is gay? And further, if he has been accused of sexual assault, the public has the right to know. He is one of the most notorious prisoners in the Israeli penal system, who once was a celebrity businessman. People deserve the right to know these things. His right to privacy should not trump the public’s right to know what he may have done in prison.

There is yet another scandal brewing which Israeli media may not report. An Israeli source tells me that the Mossad has unearthed a massive financial scandal among its procurement unit involving theft of sophisticated equipment and bribes paid by contractors in return for payment of inflated invoices. The extent of the fraud is valued in the tens of millions. There is a police gag order in place which is one of the most restrictive ever seen in the history of these benighted instruments of media suppression.

The irony is that the case has already been partially reported in Israeli media back in 2017. In fact, I posted about it here. That reporting noted that a total of seven Mossad officials were arrested, three of were had a “senior” rank. Here is how I described the corrupt scheme:

The arrestees conspired to create a fraudulent tender system under which the Mossad would release an RFP to various companies. The bidding process was rigged to favor specific companies which were part of the conspiracy. The winning bid was inflated in order to accommodate a kickback that was returned to the Mossad employees. Israel media says the stolen funds amounted to a “vast sum.” It appears that the Mossad employees arrested were not part of the agency’s operational personnel, but the financial staff. This doesn’t minimize the damage since the news reports called these officials “senior” staff. My guess is that it would involve the equivalent of the chief financial officer or the director of purchasing.

It has taken two years, but the investigation has led to indictments of the suspects. That’s what’s new in the case.

It’s worth considering this protest I added in that earlier post about this case:

In this case, Israeli police arrested these men secretly, held them secretly for weeks, and placed a ten-month gag order on the entire case; all in order to prevent the Israeli public from knowing that the Mossad can’t keep track of the vast sums of money the Israeli taxpayer gives it.

Though it’s true that such corruption may beset intelligence agencies in other countries as well, Israel as a whole is one of the more corrupt societies among the 35 OECD countries (23rd of 35). There are regular such scandals involving the Shabak and IDF as well. Rooting out such corruption is hindered by the levels of secrecy and opacity imposed on their reporting by the media.