A major financial crime case came to light today (Wednesday) following a joint operation by the Jerusalem District Central Unit and investigators from the Income Tax Investigation Unit for Jerusalem and the South. The investigation, conducted secretly for over a year under the code name “Payment Voucher,” went public when enforcement teams raided the homes of 16 individuals on July 14 and arrested three main suspects. A court ordered two of the main suspects—ages 48 and 56 from Kiryat Yearim and Tel Aviv—held at least until Thursday.
1+According to the investigation, the suspects established and operated a sprawling network of fictitious companies and nonprofits in Israel and abroad. The overarching goal of the operation was to provide money laundering services to local companies, smuggle funds from overseas and inject them into the Israeli economy while deliberately evading taxes and directly harming state coffers.
The exposed method of operation included a series of sophisticated financial manipulations, chief among them widespread use of payment vouchers tied to real estate transactions to disguise the source of funds and embed them in ostensibly legitimate assets. The network also relied on distributing fake invoices to create false accounting records, and carried out cash transfers and bank transfers through family members’ accounts to obscure the trail of illicit funds.
1+During the police raid, investigators seized dozens of assets that were allegedly purchased or financed with the fraudulent funds and tax evasion proceeds. Meanwhile, tax investigation unit detectives and tax authorities have already questioned dozens of additional individuals suspected of using the network’s illegal services to launder money and hide their income.