Reports: Ex-chief rabbi to be jailed for 3.5 years
Under plea bargain, Yona Metzger would confess to slew of corruption charges in exchange for reduced prison sentence
Former chief rabbi Yona Metzger is reportedly to be jailed for three and a half years in a plea bargain about to be signed.
Metzger
reached a plea agreement with state prosecutors over a slew of
corruption and bribery charges involving some NIS 10 million ($2.6
million), Channel 2 reported Sunda
Metzger will plead guilty to fraud, theft,
conspiracy, breach of trust, money laundering, tax offenses and
accepting bribes. In addition to serving jail time, the state will
foreclose on an apartment in Metzger’s name in central Tel Aviv.
The plea deal was offered after months of
negotiations between Metzger’s attorneys and senior officials in the
State Attorney’s Office, the report said.
In March of last year, Metzger’s trial began
at the Jerusalem District Court, with Metger facing charges of
accepting some NIS 10 million in bribes through various nonprofit
groups, and keeping about NIS 7 million ($1.8 million) for himself.
Metzger stepped down as chief rabbi on July
24, 2013 due to the pending fraud investigation, just before the end of
his 10-year term in office.
In 2014, the Israel Police’s National Fraud
Unit, also known by its internal police moniker Lahav 433, opened a
months-long investigation into alleged scams linked to Metzger involving
millions of shekels of funds purportedly siphoned into his accounts.
The case was then handed to the Jerusalem District Attorney’s office,
which examined it before passing it on to then-attorney general Yehuda
Weinstein, who brought the charges against Metzger.
Police said Metzger had stashed about $200,000
with his sister in Haifa, and a search of his home turned up NIS 40,000
(over $11,300 at the time) in cash hidden in various books. At the
time, Metzger contended that the money in Haifa came from an
inheritance, but the investigation found this claim to be untrue.
According to the indictment, various nonprofit
organizations connected with the rabbi during his term in office
received millions of shekels in donations, some of which Metzger
allegedly took for his personal use.
In addition to profiting from donations to
charitable causes, he was also accused of taking bribes meant to sway
his opinion on matters he attended to as chief rabbi.
But the attorney general at the time, fearing
an unsuccessful prosecution, decided against indicting him. Instead, he
wrote a scathing report about Metzger, accusing him of lying to police
and recommending that he resign immediately.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/reports-ex-chief-rabbi-to-be-jailed-for-3-5-years/