The plea deal between Shas chairman Aryeh Deri and the State Attorney’s Office became an official settlement yesterday afternoon. Both parties agreed that Deri would resign from the Knesset at the same time as filing a lenient indictment against him, attributing to him offenses under the Real Estate Tax Law and the Income Tax Ordinance. Under the settlement, Deri will plead guilty and be convicted of the offenses; On the other hand, Attorney General Dr. Avichai Mandelblit will not ask the court to determine that the offenses will lead to disgrace on him already at this stage, in a way that will prevent him from returning to the Knesset for seven years after the conviction.
The investigation against Deri was opened about six years ago. The police attributed serious corruption offenses to him, but later it became clear that the evidence was weak (“not even a mouse was born,” according to the ombudsman).
The first is a real estate transaction from 2013 in which MK Deri sold a property in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem to his brother, Shlomo Deri. The reports submitted to the real estate tax authorities in the online reporting forms on the transaction, as well as the sales contract attached to the report, did not reflect the full details of the transaction, including the amount of consideration. The combination of the missing transaction details would have allowed the tax authorities to clear the transaction properly, and set the value of the consideration at NIS 5.8 million, and not NIS 4.25 million, as reported. Due to the missing report to the authorities, the purchase tax that Shlomo Deri was required to pay was illegally reduced. For this, Deri is accused of aiding and abetting a false statement.
The second is the Green Ocean Investment Fund income affair. In 2011, Green Ocean began paying MK Deri a fundraiser fee for recruiting an investor to the fund. According to the indictment, since January 2013, when he returned to politics, MK Deri ordered Green Ocean to transfer the commission amounts to his brother Shlomo instead of him. Income in the amount of NIS 101,000 in the report submitted by the company owned by him in 2013, nor did he keep ledgers or submit the company’s reports in his possession to the tax authorities for 2014 and 2015, thus avoiding reporting income in the amount of NIS 534,000. Shekel for these years.
The ombudsman’s announcement yesterday stated that according to the plea agreement, the parties will jointly petition for MK Deri to be sentenced to probation only, along with a fine of NIS 180,000. The ombudsman also announced that as part of the settlement considerations, he wrote down Deri’s notice regarding his decision to resign from the Knesset, and therefore, according to the law in relation to those who are not elected by the public, the counsel will not argue in the matter of defamation.
Deri’s lawyer, Navot Tel-Tzur, yesterday welcomed the signing of the plea agreement that “brings an end to a lengthy investigation and severe torture.” According to Tel-Tzur, “The plea bargain embodies tax offenses of non-reporting, without criminal intent, negligence and negligence and a low level of severity. Deri is not charged with tax evasion. The plea bargain reflects a responsibility and willingness to bear heavy personal and public costs Although these are taxation issues that in other cases have only been clarified at the civil level. “
Deri himself said yesterday: “I have decided to take responsibility for mistakes made without malicious intent, in order to put the affair behind me and save the management of an entire trial in the matter. I will continue to focus on my public activities and lead the Shas movement with full force and faith.”
Senior right-wing officials responded yesterday in solidarity with Deri, after the plea deal was announced. “Another legal persecution that began with a loud noise and ended with a weak response,” MK Shlomo Qarai received from the Likud. The disgrace is that of Mandelblit and his gang. “
As for Shas itself, Deri will continue to serve as the party’s chairman and will bother to attend the faction meetings in the Knesset every Monday. Nevertheless, the party is debating whether to appoint an MK to coordinate parliamentary activities in his place.
During the summer, the party built Beit Shas, a huge office in the Har Hotzvim neighborhood of Jerusalem, and the central bureau there was dedicated to Deri: he will run the movement from there and hold public receptions and meetings away from journalists. “Only those who do not know Shas can think the fact That he will not be in the Knesset will affect his leadership in any way, “said strategic adviser Barak Sri, a longtime partner of Deri. “She continues unquestionably no matter where he sits, according to which he will rule anything.” However, Sri claimed that “leaving the Knesset is very difficult for him. He wants to stay in the Knesset.”
“Everyone saw how the ‘suspicions’ against you, which erupted with a loud shout, shattered on the rock of reality with a weak response,” Shas members wrote. “We, who are by your side every day and know your integrity and cleanliness as you do, revolted against the injustice done to you and against the inconceivable torture you go through. We asked to shout, to speak, to defend, but you ordered us to keep our mouths shut. It was not felt in your busy agenda. “
In the coming weeks, Deri will have to officially give up his immunity in the Knesset; The settlement will then be submitted to the court, and he will be convicted and forced to resign from the Knesset. In his place will come to represent the Shas faction Yossi Tayeb, next in line on the party list, who has previously served as a Knesset member through Norwegian law.