Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) was questioned under caution Sunday morning by the Fraud Investigation Unit in Bat Yam.
He is suspected of illegally receiving funds from business mogul Martin Schlaf, who was also involved in the Cyril Kern affair, in which funds were allegedly transferred to the Sharon family.
According to the suspicions, Lieberman received funds through fictitious accounts in Cyprus, without reporting such fund transfers as required by law. Police investigators asked him for explanations on those funds, which were allegedly used to finance his party's latest election campaign.
In recent months, fraud investigators questioned witnesses involved in the affair in Cyprus. Following the investigation findings, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz gave his approval to the police to question the minister.
Another investigation against Lieberman has been going on for several years, following the state comptroller's report from 2000 that revealed possible financial irregularities in the party.
The report said that the party had "received credit of $1 million in a bank in Israel.
As collateral for this credit, a bank guarantee from a bank in Vienna was presented; and the guarantee from the Viennese bank was put up against personal security from a foreign resident."
A year ago, during coalition negotiations between Kadima and Yisrael Beiteinu, Lieberman asked for the Internal Security portfolio. Mazuz decided at the time that he could not hold that position as long as a criminal investigation was going on against him.
In recent months, '"further evidence" was reported to have been found, possibly resolving the mystery.
What does the minister have to say about all this? "Over the past year, he has asked four times, in writing and orally, to be questioned promptly to put an end to this affair," said a spokesman on his behalf. "He is therefore glad to have been summoned and hopes that the whole matter will be over soon.
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