Convicted Former Bankruptcy Debtor Seeks to Raise 150 Million Shekels in Bonds

With two prior criminal convictions and a civil lawsuit that ended only three months ago with harsh criticism from the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court, Meir Davidi is now turning to the capital market in an attempt to raise debt of 150 million shekels through a bond offering. Davidi serves as the owner, chairman of the board and CEO of the real estate company Nitzanim, which published a prospectus at the end of May ahead of a bond issue in which it seeks to raise 150 million shekels. The prospectus contains no reference to Davidi's legal past. It states only that in August 2025 his wife transferred to him all the company shares she held, making him the owner of Nitzanim. However, a close reading of the prospectus raises several questions. Davidi's wife, who serves as the company's legal adviser, is identified throughout most of the prospectus by the name Vered David, except for one note in which she is called Vered Davidi. His brother Yitzhak and his son Uri, who are also employed by the company, likewise bear the surname David. A ruling handed down in March by Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court Judge Aaron Ornstein provides an explanation. The ruling revealed that Davidi's original name is Meir David. But beyond that, the ruling also exposes additional details about Davidi's past, including prior criminal convictions, as well as sharp criticism by the court of his conduct in the case before it.

The main conviction referred to by Judge Ornstein was handed down in 2006. At that time, the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court convicted David and his partner, Tal Yegerman, of offenses including theft by an authorized person, breach of trust in a corporation, receiving something by fraud, receiving something by fraud under aggravated circumstances, and harming a corporation's ability to meet its obligations. The conviction related to the period when the two served as partners and managers in Ogdan, a company operating in the computer and software field. The court found that they used the company's funds for their personal needs, while misleading the board of directors and committing a series of additional offenses. In 2009, on appeal against the verdict, the Tel Aviv District Court upheld most of the convictions, canceling only the count of theft by an authorized person. As a result, David was sentenced to 10 months in prison to be served, eight months suspended, and a fine of 250,000 shekels.

However, that was not his only conviction. Shortly before the final ruling in the Ogdan case, another verdict was issued against him. In that case, David admitted the facts attributed to him and was convicted of 12 offenses of failing to submit periodic VAT reports on time. For these offenses he received a six-month suspended sentence and an additional financial penalty. At that time, David controlled the SBC magazine group, which published magazines including Masa Acher, Forbes Israel and others. The group collapsed, David filed a petition for receivership, and later was declared bankrupt. Our review shows that because of the passage of time since the convictions, the company was not required to disclose them in the prospectus.

In 2017, already under the name Meir Davidi and during the period when he managed the Nitzanim real estate group, he was investigated on suspicion of tax offenses related to the offsetting of fictitious tax invoices. A year later, the suspicions were resolved in a civil settlement agreement between him and the Tax Authority.

The ruling in which Judge Ornstein sharply criticized Davidi concerned a lawsuit filed in 2023 by several apartment buyers in a Nitzanim project in Hod Hasharon against the company and several of its subsidiaries, claiming delays in apartment delivery. In the ruling, the judge wrote that the testimony of one of the witnesses