Olmert questioned about political appointments
Team of National Fraud Unit investigators arrives at prime minister's Jerusalem residence for 12th questioning session on alleged corruption affairs
A team of investigators led by Deputy Inspector General Shlomi Ayalon, head of the police's National Fraud Investigations Unit, arrived at the prime minister's residence at around 10 am Friday and was expected to question him for about two and a half hours.
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss wrote in one of his reports that "the Authority ignored the norms of public law, initiating projects and hiring workers in an abnormal procedure, while these workers' only qualification, it seems, was their association with the minister's party."
Decisions have already been made on two of the affairs. In the Rishon Tours affair, in which included the alleged misuse of public funds, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz announced that he plans to file charges against Olmert, subject to a hearing.
The prime minister is suspected of fraud, breach of trust, false registration and tax evasion. Olmert's former bureau chief, Shula Zaken, was informed by the Jerusalem District prosecutor that she would also be indicted in this affair.
The Rishon Tours affair relates to the period between 2002 and 2006, when Olmert was invited by non-profit organizations to take part in public events abroad on their behalf. According to the suspicions, the trips were financed by more than one organization, and the remaining funds were used to upgrade Olmert's flights and fund his family members' private trips abroad on dozens of occasions.
In the Bank Leumi affair, State Prosecutor Moshe Lador decided to close the case at the end of 2008.
The Leumi case centered on suspicions that Olmert, while being the locum tenens for the finance minister in former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government, used his influence to make sure an Australian businessman, Frank Louie, won the bank's privatization tender.
After a lengthy investigation, the police recommended the case be closed.
"The manner in which Olmert conducted himself in this case, according to the evidence gathered, indicate that his actual involvement in the events was minor," said Lador's final brief, adding that the evidence at hand fail to substantiate any of the suspicions in the case.
