The Tax and Economic Procuratorate has dismissed the official bribery case against infrastructure and real estate development company Shikun & Binui (TASE: SKBN). Meanwhile, an indictment was filed today against Shikun & Binui subsidiary SBI Infrastructure as part of a plea agreement, charging the company with conspiracy to commit a crime and violating the Securities Act.
As part of the agreement, the subsidiary will acknowledge the facts and ask to pay a fine of NIS 10 million. In addition, NIS 250 million, held by the state since 2018 with SBI International Holdings AG, SBI Infrastructure’s Swiss subsidiary, will be seized.
Naty Saidoff, Chairman of Shikun & Binui, said: “I am pleased that this long-running case has come to an end with the closure of the case against the company. We are now looking forward with all our energy.”
In 2018, an investigation was opened into suspicions of payments to officials in Africa through a set of separate accounts and due to the failure to report the payments in the company’s financial statements. This decision followed an amendment to Israeli criminal law in 2008 establishing the offence of bribing a foreign official to promote business activity. The investigation was concluded five years ago, but the decision on whether to file an indictment was long delayed. In 2021, it was decided to close the case against Shikun & Bunui’s then majority shareholder, Shari Arison.
Last December, Shikun & Binui’s top executives, including former CEO Ofer Kotler, signed a plea agreement that provided for light sentences and no jail time. At the same time, cases against former Shikun & Binui Chairman Ravit Barniv, SBI CEO Yehuda Elimelech, and former Shikun & Binui legal counsel Hezi Kattan were dismissed. Former Shikun & Binui Chairman Moshe Lahmani, SBI Infrastructure Kenya Branch Director Dan Shaham, and SBI-Solel Boneh Foreign Affairs CEO Rony Paluch admitted to the charges against them and were sentenced to fines, suspended prison sentences, and community service.
According to the indictment against the subsidiary, before the amendment came into effect, some Shikun & Binui group companies made payments to individuals in the countries where they operated without receipts, some of which were undue. These illegal payments, as well as the profits derived from them, were recorded in the group’s books.
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Following this amendment, companies adopted a code of ethics and an enforcement program to implement the code in the countries where they operated.
Along with this, especially till 2012, SBI Infrastructure conspired with the companies not to suspend payments.
Published by Globes, Israeli business news – fr.globes.co.il – July 4, 2024.
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.