A London-based businessman was indicted over the weekend with handing Ramat Gan Mayor Zvi Bar almost a million shekels in bribes to advance a lucrative real-estate project.
Emanuel Arbib, an Italian citizen and CEO of London-based investment firm Integrated Asset Management PLC, allegedly gave Bar bribes totaling NIS 977,743 to influence local planning committees to green-light the Beit Lir Or project, in which Arbib’s company Blantfort Investment Management Ltd had a substantial interest
Mayor since 1989, at the time of the alleged bribery Bar was chief the local Planning and Zoning Committee and a member of the District Building Committee, and was in a position of considerable influence, the indictment served in the Tel Aviv District Court charges.
Arbib is also charged with money-laundering. He allegedly concealed the bribe by disguising it as a £225,000 loan to Bar from London-based company Grove Property Finance Ltd.
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