- Police have obtained significant new information in their
investigation of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his sons by deposing a
witness on a Caribbean island, and now intend to question the suspects
in the affair, including the three Sharons, on the information.
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- The new lead relates to a $1.5 million loan Sharon's
family received from British businessman Cyril Kern to repay illegal contributions
to Sharon's 1999 primary campaign.
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- Police believe that Kern, who has no business interests
in Israel, was a front for other businessmen who do have such interests
and the money may have been a bribe to further these interests.
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- Sharon's son, Gilad, later repaid this loan with funds
that apparently provided by the same businessmen that gave Kern the original
money.
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- Information that reached the police a few weeks ago led
them to investigate a bank account in a Caribbean island that appeared
to have been involved in the various transfers to and from the Sharon family's
bank accounts.
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- Police have been trying to trace the exact route of these
transfers for some time, and their investigations have led them to suspect
that businessman Arie Genger, who has substantial interests here, was one
of the people who transferred large sums of money to the Sharons, either
via Kern or a shell company that Kern and Gilad Sharon established.
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- Police also suspect that when Gilad repaid the money,
some of it went to a commercial firm which Genger indirectly owns. This
is not the first time the investigation has led the police to the Caribbean
- they also gathered evidence in the Virgin Islands.
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- Tel Aviv District Court is expected to decide soon whether
Gilad Sharon is required to obtain various documents from the Austrian
bank BAWAG, through which many of the fund transfers passed, and turn them
over to the police.
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- If the court rules in the police's favor, these documents
are expected to significantly advance the investigation.
-
- Sharon's other son, Omri Sharon MK, is suspected of playing
a major role in setting up the network of shell companies that amassed
the illegal campaign donations in the first place.
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