Israeli Deputy Mayor of Be'er Ya'akov Indicted in Multi-Million Shekel Corruption Case

The State Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment on Sunday at the Lod District Court against Noam Sasson, the Deputy Mayor of Be'er Ya'akov, along with six other defendants including businessmen, contractors, and companies. The charges relate to a large-scale political corruption case involving public tenders and contracts worth millions of shekels. The indictment, submitted by Attorney Elhanan Dreyfus of the Central District Prosecutor's Office, accuses the defendants of offenses including breach of trust, fraud, money laundering, and tax violations.

Noam Sasson served as Deputy Mayor from 2019 to 2020, holding the engineering portfolio and chairing the tender committee. He allegedly exploited his position to advance the economic interests of his close friend and business associate Giora Shabtai. Prosecutors claim the two had a "mutual commitment" relationship, with Sasson acting in a severe conflict of interest to promote contracts benefiting Shabtai.

The main case concerns a 2019 summer renovation project for educational institutions in Be'er Ya'akov. Shabtai collaborated with contractor Erez Medina to devise a scheme where Shabtai would work through Sasson to approve contracts with the company Mashkal, while they would secretly perform the work and reap the profits. A fictitious contract was signed with another company to conceal Shabtai's involvement and disguise the money flow. The indictment also alleges a 20,000 shekel cash bribe and subsequent transfers of hundreds of thousands of shekels among the parties to hide the source and beneficiaries of the funds.

Sasson is accused of pressuring professionals to approve work orders, pushing for additional budgets, attending meetings to expedite payments, and resolving disputes to facilitate fund transfers. The total fraudulent contracts and payments exceeded one million shekels. Another charge involves Sasson favoring a childhood friend by leaking internal pricing information and delaying procurement to allow a preferred contractor to submit a lower bid, winning a sealing job for about 30,500 shekels.

Additionally, Sasson and his close business partner Eliyahu Daouan allegedly manipulated a three-year transportation tender worth over 20 million shekels. Despite a conflict of interest ruling by the Justice Ministry's committee, they presented a sham dissolution of their joint land ownership to enable Daouan's company to compete and win the tender. Sasson also faces charges of threatening and harassing a municipal engineer after she testified in the investigation.

The indictment accuses Sasson of fraud, breach of trust, aggravated fraud, perjury, threats, and witness harassment. Giora Shabtai faces charges including fraud, breach of trust, aggravated fraud, bribery, money laundering, and tax offenses involving millions of shekels. The other defendants are charged with various offenses related to fraud, bribery, false corporate records, money laundering, and tax violations.