Former CEO indicted for alleged NIS 40 million fraud
Freddy Robinson, former Chairman of the Dawn of Millennium Corporation, was charged with fraud, breach of corporate trust, and other crimes.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBIsraeli Police(photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
The state filed an indictment on Sunday with the Tel Aviv District Court against Freddy Robinson, former chairman of the Dawn of Millennium Corporation, for a NIS 40 million fraud scheme.The indictment, filed by the Securities Fraud unit of the Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office, charged Robinson with fraud, breach of corporate trust, corporate administrative offenses, securities offenses, witness tampering and obstruction of justice.At the time of the alleged offenses, Robinson also controlled the corporation via another corporation he owned called Milomor.The corporation’s lawyer, Amir Dinor, and Milomor were also included in the indictment.According to the indictment, from 2005-2007 Robinson, along with Milomor deputy CEO Oren Daodi and accountant Gila Schleiffer withdrew millions of shekels from the corporation in order to transfer the funds to Milomor, which was in financial distress.Robinson allegedly concealed the transfers from most of the corporation’s employees, from the corporation’s comptroller and from a trustee representing the corporation’s bond holders, making no reports and receiving none of the required approvals.To avoid detection, Robinson allegedly returned all or most of the transferred funds right before the end of each quarter so that the funds would appear to have always been in the right place in the snapshot of the accounts given in the quarterly reports.Robinson created a range of obligations on the corporation for paying off Milomor’s debts, including an unlimited guarantee without the required approvals or reports, said the indictment.The state’s statement said that the SEC uncovered irregularities while investigating Milomor in 2006, leading Robinson to turn to various key employees in an attempt to cover up the withdrawals or to distance himself personally from them, obstructing the case.The state even claims that Robinson offered Daodi substantial funds if he would take responsibility for the transfers – though Daodi refused.
