Secret probe: Tax Authority findings raise questions about Goldknopf

The Attorney General has authorized the Tax Authority to open a covert investigation into United Torah Judaism chairman MK Yitzhak Goldknopf, who previously served as housing minister, Avishai Greenzweig reported this evening on i24NEWS.

According to the report, the Tax Authority’s review found that Goldknopf declared that as of 2022 he held 13 real estate properties, but the authority allegedly identified at least three additional properties that were not reported.

The report also claimed that the Tax Authority examined unusual transactions involving Goldknopf and members of his family. Among them was a transaction in which the Beit Yaakov association, identified with Goldknopf, sold a large apartment to his granddaughter below market price, while, according to the report, the family connection was concealed. The granddaughter later gave the apartment as a gift to her parents. Another transaction, from 2015, reportedly involved Israel Goldknopf, Yitzhak Goldknopf’s son, giving his father half of an apartment as a gift. Goldknopf later sold the apartment he received, according to the report.

The report further said the Tax Authority raised allegations of tax evasion, with the tax allegedly paid only retroactively after the authority discovered the issue. In addition, questions were reportedly raised about the sources of funding for some of the apartments, but no conclusive finding was reached on that matter, according to the report.

Greenzweig also revealed that intelligence information allegedly indicated that Goldknopf, while serving as housing minister, raised issues in professional meetings with mayors concerning kindergartens of the association he had founded and managed in the past, and is now run by his son. According to the report, this allegedly violated his conflict-of-interest arrangement.

Despite the findings detailed in the report, the Attorney General has not yet ordered Goldknopf to be questioned under caution. The Tax Authority and the Attorney General’s Office declined to comment.

In response, Goldknopf’s office said some of the claims had already been published in the past and investigated, and nothing was found. It also said the granddaughter’s apartment belongs to the granddaughter and is not connected to him, and that the claim regarding his son Israel was “never happened and never was created.” Goldknopf’s office also rejected the claim that tax was paid late, saying no inquiry had been received from a tax assessor on the matter. Regarding the financing of the apartments, it said all purchases and funding sources are properly documented, and regarding the claims about discussions concerning the Beit Yaakov network, it said they were “complete nonsense.”