The State Attorney’s Office filed a sweeping indictment today Sunday in the Central District Court against Be’er Ya’akov Deputy Mayor Noam Sasson and six others—including businessmen, contractors, and private companies. The indictment, filed by attorney Elchanan Dreyfus of the Central District Prosecutor’s Office, charges the defendants with public corruption, breach of trust, and tax offenses.
2+According to the indictment, Sasson—who during the relevant period served as deputy mayor, held the engineering portfolio, and chaired the municipal tender committee—allegedly exploited his public position to advance the economic interests of friends and associates. The central affair involves summer renovations at Be’er Ya’akov educational institutions in 2019, worth millions of shekels. Prosecutors say Sasson operated under severe conflicts of interest to benefit his friend Giora Shabtai, using his position and municipal connections to advance contracts executed through fraud via contractors and straw men.
Shabtai and others allegedly received renovation work through a mechanism of fictitious agreements that concealed the true identities of those performing the work. The indictment alleges that hundreds of thousands of shekels changed hands through methods designed to disguise the source of the money and the identities of its beneficiaries. Sasson himself allegedly promoted payment approvals and work orders for those involved in the scheme, and even asked them to perform certain work for him as a “donation.”
2+Another charge accuses Sasson of interfering in a tender for roof waterproofing work at Be’er Ya’akov kindergartens. According to prosecutors, Sasson acted on behalf of a childhood friend, passed him inside information about competing bids, and even tried to delay procurement committee meetings until his associates could submit a lower bid. Ultimately, prosecutors say, the bid he promoted won the contract.
The most financially serious affair involves the municipality’s transportation tender, estimated at over 20 million shekels. According to the indictment, Sasson and his business partner Eliyahu Dahan falsely represented that they had dissolved their business partnership after the conflict-of-interest committee ruled that the existence of a business relationship barred the company from participating in the tender. Despite official declarations, prosecutors allege the two continued doing business together behind the scenes and even acted jointly to purchase additional real estate assets. The transportation company subsequently won a contract under which it received over 20.2 million shekels from the municipality between 2020 and 2022.
2+The indictment also includes charges of witness intimidation and harassment. Prosecutors allege that during the investigation, Sasson came to the municipal building, confronted the city engineer, yelled at her over her testimony to police, cursed her, and threatened to work toward ending her employment.
Additionally, the indictment charges Giora Shabtai with tax offenses for allegedly concealing income of approximately 4.5 million shekels over eight years, and contractor Erez Medina for allegedly failing to report income from property rentals totaling over one million shekels.
The investigation was conducted by the National Fraud Investigation Unit at Lahav 433. As part of the indictment, the state is also seeking to confiscate assets and funds worth millions of shekels that it says are connected to the money laundering offenses attributed to the defendants.