Likud employee indicted for NIS 2 million embezzlement scam

Woman who served as head of party's financial department charge with forging signatures, transferring funds to her mother, aunt's personal bank accounts
Vered Luvitch

An indictment was filed with the Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court Thursday against Tamara Minsharov, a 40-year-old resident of Holon, suspected of embezzling NIS 2 million (approx. $550,000) during her tenure as head of the Likud's financial department from 1993 to 2005.

Minsharov was charged with a series of offenses, including larceny, attempted theft, forgery and the use of a falsified document.

According to the indictment, the accused trained herself over the years to forge the signatures of authorized personnel in order to deposit Likud checks in the personal bank accounts of her mother and aunt, who gave her cash in return.

The indictment further stated that Minsharov knew that the money in some of the accounted was logged manually, rather than using the accounting software, and so she chose to use checks written from those accounts. The withdrawals were described as miscellaneous expenses or "advertising fees."

In another attempt to steal NIS 100,000 (about $28,000) using a forged signature, Minsharov told the bank that the money was earmarked for attorneys' fees. In some cases where the bank would contact the Likud offices to receive authorization for transfers, she would personally authorize the fund transfer to her mother's account.

Minsharov was detained in March 2007 after forging a NIS 28,000 ($7,700) check, after a bank clerk asked to authorize the check after noticing a discrepancy between the numbers and words written on it. An employee at the Likud offices noticed that Minsharov was acting suspiciously in her exchange with the bank and notified her superiors. A police investigation ensued.