Gaydamak files charges against senior prosecution officer

Businessman Arcadi Gaydamak filed a criminal complaint Sunday against Yitzhak Bloom, deputy-director of the international division of the State Prosecutor's Office. The charge: "Supplying foreign governments with false information."

Gaydamak's attorneys have also filed a motion with Attorney General Menachem Mazuz to approve their move.

A criminal complaint is a legal recourse available to the victims of a somewhat narrow list of misdemeanors, mostly pertaining to slander and libel. Nevertheless, criminal complaint cases are heard in a criminal court – just as if a State-backed indictment would have been files in their matter.

The complaint, filed on behalf of Gaydamak by Attorney Ronel Fisher, says as followed: "This complaint pertains to the constant, methodic, politically motivated persecution of Arcadi Gaydamak, by (Attorney) Yitzhak Bloom, a man holding a key position in Israeli law enforcement."

Persona non grata

The defendant, continued the complaint, "engaged in falsifying information regarding (Gaydamak) and distributing said false information, causing (the plaintiff) deformation of character."

Bloom, wrote Fisher, "Made an official appeal to Luxemburg and Russian law enforcement authorities on behalf of the State, depicting the plaintiff as a criminal by using fabricated information and fictitious allegations suggesting his alleged involvement in grave acts."

Bloom, said the complaint, has been engaging in a "witch hunt" against Gaydamak: "For the past eight years law enforcement authorities in Israel have been conducting both obvert and covert investigations of the plaintiff, during which countless wrongs have been perpetrated against him.

"These false accusations – including money laundering using offshore accounts which have been unequivocally proven as belonging to someone else – have severely damages the plaintiff's reputation as a businessman, so much so that he has been declared persona non grata in several countries around the world."

The damages to Gaydamak's business, assessed those close to the case, is in the high millions.

The complaint further notes that after the Luxemburg authorities refused to freeze Gaydamak's assets in the country, the Stare Prosecutor's Office had no choice but to send a communiqué admitting it had no concrete evidence of any criminal wrongdoing by the businessman.

The Luxemburg court, concluded the complaint, found that Israeli authorities had no evidence supporting taking any actions against Gaydamak.