The Southern District Attorney’s Office today (Thursday) filed an indictment in the Be’er Sheva District Court against seven defendants, including four companies, each of whom, according to his share, commits aggravated fraudulent offenses against the state in the amount of millions of shekels due to non-payment of landfill levies. Capital in the amount of approximately NIS 14 million and additional offenses.
According to the indictment, filed through attorney Tzlil Zanti, defendant Oren Epstein from Tlalim and Yonatan LA, which he owns, operating a waste disposal site license in the Ramat Negev Regional Council, used to falsely record in the weighing systems a different type of waste than the one actually brought to the site. And installed another weighing system, the entries of which were not reported to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, thereby avoiding the payment of a landfill levy to the Ministry of Environmental Protection in the amount of NIS 2,807,290. In addition, for these entries, in violation of the terms of the business license, as specified in the indictment, he received monetary compensation from the leading companies in the amount of NIS 3,210,205. The scope of the money laundering offense amounts to approximately NIS 14 million.
In accordance with the law, the site operates a debt disposal site for the payment of a landfill levy for each tonne of landfill waste, and there is a restriction on the terms of the business license for the introduction of daily waste. The indictment states that Epstein purchased an additional (double) weighing system, among other things in order to circumvent the daily quantity limit and all entries entered in this system, refrained from reporting to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and thus avoided paying burial levies for them. Also, in both the regular reporting system and the dual system, the defendant used to falsely register a type of waste that was incorrect, in order to avoid the landfill levy.
For example, in the case of one of the companies, which transported waste to the landfill site, the defendant reported that it was a “covering material” (on which there is no obligation to pay a landfill levy), while it was “sludge” type waste. He also used to report that a “pruning” that was treated at the site entered, while “mixed” waste entered the site. In addition, the defendant used to issue to West Prussia invoices with fictitious content, which were designed incorrectly to reflect the real service provided, in order to disguise the landfill.
The indictment states that the defendants Nader Tahan and NAT Movers Ltd. owned by him, Ephraim Ben Hamo from Meitar and two companies under his control – Vered W.M. Ltd. and West Pras Ltd., benefited from reduced entrance fee payments to the site The landfill, following the false classification, was investigated by the Southern Fraud Unit of the Israel Police and the Green Police.
The indictment attributes to the defendants, each according to his share, six charges for committing money laundering offenses, receiving anything fraudulently under aggravated circumstances, false registration in corporation documents, offenses under the Cleanliness Act and violating business license conditions. Together with the indictment, the prosecution filed a motion with the court to order the forfeiture of the property of defendant Oren Epstein, including individual farms, which are equal to form part of the value of the property in which the offenses were committed.
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