Nohi Dankner Moves Toward Bankruptcy, Leaving His Herzliya Villa for a Tel Aviv Apartment

After the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court issued an insolvency order against Nohi Dankner on Tuesday, he is expected soon to leave his luxury home in Herzliya and move into an apartment building in Tel Aviv. He has also recently started taking taxis as part of what the report describes as his new financial reality. In about a year and a half, when allowed, he plans to ask for a discharge from his debts.

The court said Dankner, who is effectively bankrupt, will not be allowed to hold an Israeli passport, will be treated as a restricted bank customer, will not have a credit card, and will be barred from founding a new corporation. He may keep only a bank account in credit balance, and he will have to submit a report on income and expenses to creditors every two months. The court approved the request after Dankner withdrew his opposition to the banks’ insolvency proceedings.

Dankner, once the controller of IDB, then the largest conglomerate in the Israeli economy, previously reached a debt settlement because of high leverage and a pyramid ownership structure that let him control companies worth tens of billions of shekels with relatively little capital. The insolvency trustee will be appointed by the official receiver and will handle the remaining debt and the sale of assets.

The four creditor banks, Leumi, Hapoalim, Mizrahi Tefahot and Discount, asked to open bankruptcy proceedings after Dankner failed to meet the terms of his debt arrangement in recent months. His debt stood at 550 million shekels, after he had repaid 110 million shekels to the banks and promised to transfer his share of his father’s estate. The banks also believed he had not done enough to sell Beit Hashanah, a Jerusalem office building inherited from his father, Yitzhak Dankner. Dankner told the judge, Nurit Tabib-Mizrahi, “I am throwing in the towel. I gave everything I had,” adding that he had pledged his rights in his father’s estate and was negotiating over the sale of the building. His lawyer, Shuli Goldblat, said at the start of the hearing that they would not oppose the banks’ request, and Dankner said, “I have been in insolvency in practice for ten years.” He added that he had tried everything, including selling his home and borrowing from friends and relatives. He also said an attempt to launch a business through Hoshen Foodtech failed because of a problem with an investor.