Holyland housing project
Photo: Reuters
'Macher' in Holyland affair tells all
Businessman who 'got things done' for firm accused of bribery says he paid millions for building permits
The businessman who "got things done" for the Holyland affair
has described in a draft of the statement of claim how he succeeded in getting permits for the construction of the housing project in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes.
Yedioth Ahronoth daily published his statement Thursday, in which he claims that a senior figure of authority received almost a million dollars in exchange for promoting the project.
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The draft has not yet been filed with the court. It describes the process in which land belonging to Hillel Cherney, on which he was permitted to build hotels the size of 12,000 square meters, was appropriated for construction of housing and commercial structures ranging over 320,000 square meters, or 25 times the original size.
The businessman recounts in the draft how he managed to bring about this change using his skills and his contacts, as well as a large fistful of dollars.
He claims the property improvement tax imposed on Cherney in exchange for construction permits was decreased from $57 million to just $19 million. He says the land development tax was cut by $15 million.
But according to the witness tax reductions were not his only achievement. He says he also secured a number of benefits for Holyland's owners which significantly harm its residents and all those who used the infrastructure in the area, such as convincing the municipality to build a smaller parking lot and a smaller bridge leading to the construct from the main road.
