A former senior customs official once nicknamed the "Sheriff of Ben Gurion Airport Customs" has been permanently dismissed from the Israel Tax Authority after admitting to dozens of false attendance reports and repeated incidents of threatening and abusive behavior toward employees, a state disciplinary court ruled.
Ran Sofer, who previously headed enforcement operations at the customs office at Israel's main international airport and also served as chairman of the national workers' committee for the Israel Tax Authority's Customs and VAT Division, was ordered dismissed from public service for life under a plea agreement reached with state prosecutors.
The disciplinary court also issued Sofer a severe reprimand, docked one month's salary and demoted him for 18 months, a move expected to reduce his post-retirement benefits.
The ruling follows a yearslong investigation that stemmed largely from investigative reports published in ynet's sister publication Calcalist in 2019 and 2021. According to the newspaper, the evidence it uncovered formed the basis for two of the three disciplinary cases to which Sofer ultimately pleaded guilty.
At the center of the case were 38 fraudulent attendance reports — 22 involving Sofer himself and 16 in which he helped another employee falsify attendance records by punching each other's time cards.
According to the amended disciplinary complaint, Sofer and his subordinate, Adi Sharpman, repeatedly recorded false arrivals and departures between 2018 and 2019 by swiping one another's employee cards, falsely indicating they were at work. Investigators initially suspected the pair had obtained duplicate employee cards after falsely claiming their originals had been lost, allowing them to inflate their salaries by falsely reporting attendance over an extended period.
Sharpman was separately convicted in 2024 of disciplinary offenses related to the scheme. He was barred from holding management positions for three years, received a severe reprimand, was demoted for one year and forfeited one month's salary.
The disciplinary case against Sofer also included multiple incidents involving abusive treatment of female employees.
One incident occurred in 2019 in a cafeteria at Terminal 1 of Ben Gurion Airport. According to the amended charges, Sofer shouted at a cafeteria employee after she reprimanded him for touching bread rolls with his hands. Several weeks later, he returned, pointed a finger at her in what prosecutors described as a threatening manner and addressed her in language unbecoming of a public servant.
The woman alleged that Sofer warned her, "Wherever you are, I'll come after you."
Sofer admitted shouting at the employee and behaving in a rude and disrespectful manner. He was convicted of conduct unbecoming of a civil servant and violating public service discipline.
Ben Gurion Airport בustoms
(Photo: Khul Mehudar)
A second incident occurred in 2021 when Sofer went to the office of the customs administration manager seeking reimbursement for the purchase of toilet paper.
After the administrator said she did not recall approving the purchase and would check whether reimbursement was possible, Sofer began shouting at her and tore up the receipt. He later returned twice more that day, continuing to yell until the head of the customs office intervened and removed him from the office.
He admitted repeatedly behaving in a threatening and aggressive manner and was convicted of additional disciplinary offenses.
During the disciplinary hearing, a prosecutor representing the Civil Service Commission said Sofer's conduct deserved public condemnation.
"The defendant was fully aware of the implications of fraudulent attendance reports and his threatening and disrespectful remarks toward employees," the prosecutor said. "He betrayed the trust placed in him by both the system and its employees and damaged the image, integrity and functioning of the public service."
Sofer's attorney, Ayala Honigman, urged the court to approve the plea agreement, noting that her client had once been a highly influential union leader but that his status had changed significantly. She said the 58-year-old had accepted responsibility by signing the plea deal.
In a statement, Honigman said prosecutors dropped entire charges and substantially revised others as part of the agreement.
"After years of legal proceedings, he decided to retire from the civil service, which led to a lenient plea agreement," she said.
According to Calcalist, the investigation was one of the most serious disciplinary cases involving fraudulent attendance reporting ever handled by the Civil Service Commission. The newspaper also reported that although allegations first reached authorities in 2017, the investigation progressed slowly amid claims that Sofer enjoyed protection from senior officials within the Tax Authority.
During that period, Calcalist reported, Sofer continued serving in a judicial role on the disciplinary tribunal of the civil servants' labor federation, even as he himself was under investigation.