The police suspect that the Abergil crime syndicate has been using a prominent construction and realty firm, whose shares are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, to launder money. International Crime Investigations Unit officers on Tuesday arrested four people in connection with the case, including two of the construction company's managing partners. The four are suspected of money laundering, falsifying corporate documents and tax fraud exceeding 60 million shekels ($17.25 million). Investigators raided the suspects' homes and offices on Monday, confiscating several computers and dozens of documents. The Rishon Lezion Magistrates Court on Tuesday remanded the suspects to police custody for seven days. The police said that this was the first time that a direct link has been established between prominent businessmen and a crime syndicate. The Abergils are considered one of Israel's three most notorious crime families, alongside the Abutbuls and the Alperons. A senior police official told Israel Hayom that the evidence suggests the construction company's managing partners maintained contact with crime boss Yitzhak Abergil when he was serving prison sentences both in Israel and in the United States. The suspects allegedly "used company capital to fund criminal infrastructure linked to Abergil's organization, affording him the funds needed to finance his organization's criminal operations," he said. The arrests followed a lengthy and covert investigation by the police, the Tax Authority's Yahalom financial crimes unit, and the Israel Money Laundering Prohibition Authority. The investigation was supervised by the State Attorney's Office. The police believe the construction company's managing partners became involved with the Abergil crime syndicate in 2007. Several company officials have been questioned in the past over their alleged ties to the crime organization, but this is the first time the police has been able to gather solid evidence in the case. Attorneys Ronel Fisher, Ruth David-Blum and Natalie Strul, who are representing the two prime suspects in the case, disputed the police's allegations. "This is a public company that is carefully regulated. These suspicions and allegations are baseless. The untold damage caused to the company's operations and its owners' reputation is on the heads of those whose prolific minds have come up with this speculative conspiracy theory," Fisher said. He claimed that the company was regularly audited by an external auditor, adding that "saying such a company has the ability to conceal 60 million shekels is absurd. This is a fantasy we cannot even begin to tackle in order to convince the police, Yahalom and the court that there is nothing to these allegations."
