Interior Minister Deri
Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg
Interior Minister Deri suspected of tax evasion
Investigation into Deri's vacation home finds the land may have been sold to the minister partly in cash and without declaring it to the Tax Authority.
The National Fraud Unit has detained a couple suspected of selling land to Interior Minister and Chairman of Shas Aryeh Deri, who police suspect committed tax offences by failing to report a large some of the money exchanged in the transaction.
Investigators suspect that the land sale contract was not signed in the name of the original owners, and that about half a million shekels were paid in cash and not reported for tax purposes.
Interior Minister Deri (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)
Those registered as owners of the land, also known as Safsufa, are Deri's daughter and son-in-law.
Deri then used the land—located in the northern moshav of Kfar Hoshen—to build a vacation home also under scrutiny by the Israel Tax Authority for allegedly being constructed using funds from undeclared assets.
The couple who were detained for questioning claim that they had no part in the deal, despite the fact that their name is also written in the contract.
For the time being, the interrogators have yet to decide what measures to take against the couple and will decide whether to bring them to a hearing about their remand or release.
Aryeh Deri's vacation home
Deri is currently being investigated as part of a Tax Authority probe into money laundering and false reports about income and assets.
Aside from these allegations, Deri is also suspected of illegally transferring apartments to his brother Shlomo just before his return to politics. His return came nine years after he spent 22 months in prison for taking $155,000 in bribes while serving as Interior Minister.
