The District Court in Jerusalem sentenced Osama Abu Khater to 10 years in prison and fined him an aggregate amount of approximately 7 million NIS and forfeited his seized property after he was convicted as part of a plea agreement of tax offenses, money laundering and fraud totaling approximately 600 million NIS . Abu Khater is the main defendant in the “Around the Corner” affair, a large-scale, complex and branching affair in which many of those involved have already been tried and sentenced to long prison terms.
According to the verdict, Abu Khater headed a group which, in a systematic and sophisticated manner, with a clear division of duties, operated dozens of straw companies in the name of others and issued thousands of documents purporting to be tax invoices. The fictitious tax invoices were issued to various companies and helped those companies reduce their tax liability. In return, Abu Khater and the other members of the organization charged a commission of at least 8% of the value of the invoices. In addition, the members of the organization made use of false reports in order to avoid paying income tax and VAT themselves.
In total, throughout the years 2011-2015, the group distributed 4,170 fictitious invoices for a total amount of approximately NIS 400 million.
In order to disguise the source of the property and the illicit capital they had accumulated, the members of the organization deposited checks and made gold transfers through the straw men they employed, and with the help of currency service providers they laundered capital in a total amount of no less than NIS 140 million. Two indictments against the currency service providers who assisted in this operation were also recently submitted to this court.
Honorable Judge Hagit McKalmanovitz noted in her decision the high tax amounts that were deducted from the state coffers as a result of Abu Khater’s actions, the degree of sophistication and organization of the accused and his accomplices, the rare scope of the offenses and also that Abu Khater is considered the apex of the pyramid and is the one who enjoys most of the profits.
According to its ruling, “For some time now, there has been a trend of worsening the punishment for economic crimes in general, and for tax crimes and money laundering in particular. The Supreme Court insisted on the serious harm that tax crimes have on the economy and the economy, both due to the theft of funds from the state treasury, the damage to the ability to use them for various purposes For the benefit of the public, both due to the feeling of inequality and the damage to the social fabric that results from it.”
The sentence of the main defendant shows the seriousness with which the courts view economic offenses and the damages these offenses cause at the peripheral level, and take them into account when determining punishments. The case was handled by Attorney Sharon Regev and Attorney Abed Lembasher from the national legal-criminal unit of the Tax Authority.