Former deputy interior minister Faina Kirschenbaum was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after she was convicted of bribery by the Tel Aviv District Court in March, in one of the worst public corruption cases in Israeli history that had already led to over a dozen convictions.
Besides skimming funds off the state budgets that Kirschenbaum granted to various public bodies, she was convicted of organizing a scheme, along with family members and members of her Yisrael Beytenu party, to receive free hotel rooms, expensive electronic equipment, well-paid jobs, and a range of other illegal quid pro quo benefits.
She was also ordered by the court to pay a NIS 900,000 fine.