Partner Arrested in Probe, Yariv Lerner Becomes Largest Shareholder in Urban Renewal Company
A year after Ilan Mikner became entangled in an investigation that led to his arrest, he lost his status as one of the controlling owners of the urban renewal company Liyam Harish, following a significant capital injection that made Yariv Lerner, one of the owners of the Wecom cellular network and Negev Ceramics, the company’s largest shareholder. In Liyam Harish’s first-quarter reports, published at the end of May, it was revealed that ownership of the parent company, Liyam Engineering Urban Renewal, which holds 80% of Liyam Harish’s shares, had changed. Before the change, Liyam Engineering Urban Renewal was held by Liyam Engineering (50%), Lior Cohen (25%) and Achikam Cohen (25%). Liyam Engineering itself is held in equal parts by Mikner and Lerner. That meant Mikner indirectly held 20% of Liyam Harish’s shares and was among the company’s controlling shareholders.
The ownership restructuring was completed on May 12. Liyam Engineering Urban Renewal is now held by A.S.Y.B Holdings (45%), Liyam Engineering (5%), Lior Cohen (25%) and Achikam Cohen (25%). The sole shareholder of A.S.Y.B Holdings is Lerner. In other words, Lerner is now the largest shareholder in Liyam Harish, while Mikner remains with an indirect holding of 2%. Calcalist learned that Mikner’s dilution in Liyam Harish’s parent company took place against the backdrop of a significant capital injection into the company. According to people familiar with the matter, the other three shareholders were required to provide guarantees and capital commitments totaling more than 200 million shekels, in order to allow the company to continue its business operations and advance the projects it is carrying out. As part of this, A.S.Y.B Holdings also took on Liyam Engineering’s share of the capital commitments, and Lerner provided capital commitments of about 100 million shekels. Mikner, by contrast, did not participate in the capital injection, and as a result his holding was diluted. A source close to the company said, "The company has grown and needed additional capital. Mikner is currently in a situation where his liquidity is more limited, so he did not participate in the capital injections that were required."
Mikner was arrested in June 2025, just days after Liyam Harish completed an 115 million shekel bond offering on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. According to the suspicions investigated by police, Mikner is allegedly linked to a case involving Ezra u'Bitzaron, a subsidiary of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality operating in urban renewal. At the center of the case is the municipal company’s CEO, Eli Ginzburg. According to the suspicion, millions of shekels were transferred to a consulting company owned by Ginzburg’s wife by contractors who won tenders from the company. In the arrest request filed with the court, police claimed that Mikner was allegedly "one of the main channels in transferring funds to the main suspect Eli Ginzburg." The suspicions investigated included, among others, alleged offenses of bribery, fraud, and money laundering. Mikner was held in custody for eight days. During the arrest, which was not directly related to Liyam Harish’s operations, the company’s bank account was frozen, but the freeze was lifted within one day. The investigation in the case is still ongoing.
Liyam Harish operates in residential, employment and commercial real estate development in Israel. The company is advancing a project in Harish that includes 153 apartments, about 15,000 square meters of employment space and about 9,000 square meters of retail space. The company’s bonds reflect relatively high risk. In the last trading day, the bonds fell by about 2.8%, and over the past month they have declined by nearly 5% in total. The bonds’ gross yield to maturity now stands at 13.4%.
