Ramat Gan Mayor sentenced to house arrest after municipality raid
Yisrael Zinger also prohibited from entering Ramat Gan Municipality for 15 days; National Fraud Unit take 30 employees into custody, including senior workers, following suspicion of bribery in recent city elections, improper political appointments.
Yisrael Zinger, the Mayor of Ramat Gan, a city bordering Tel Aviv, was sentenced to 7 days of house arrest after Israel's Police National Fraud Unit launched a raid at the Ramat Gan Municipality offices on Monday as part of an investigation centered on corruption suspicions in the city's recent municipal elections. Over 100 investigators and detectives participated in the sweep, which began at 5 am.
Police is investigating, among other things, the involvement of municipality employees in criminal activities. Thirty city workers are currently held in custody, including senior employees.
Large police forces are simultaneously searching the homes of senior municipal officials and conducting arrests as part of an undercover investigation in recent months headed by the National Fraud Unit. Liad Ilani, a Ramat Gan municipality Council member said: "This is a painful, unsurprising morning for Ramat Gan and its residents".
The investigation is also looking into the municipality's engineering administration. "This building is at the heart of the case," said a source involved in the investigation. .
Several months ago, the Fraud Unit began to gather information about the criminal conduct of a number of Ramat Gan municipality officials. The undercover investigation dealt with various political appointments made in the municipality, the improper awarding of municipality tenders and serious building violations.
During the investigation, suspicions were raised concerning alleged bribery offenses, election bribery, fraud and breach of trust, money laundering and tax offences by Ramat Gan municipality officials and others.
