Authorities raided the Tel Aviv Municipality and arrested 13 individuals suspected of serious offenses on Monday morning, Israeli media reported.
The arrests followed a joint investigation by the National Economic Crimes Unit in Lahav 433, along with the Tax Authority.
Those arrested include employees of cleaning companies that provide services to the sanitation department, who were arrested on suspicion of severe offenses of public corruption, money laundering, and issuing illegal tax invoices worth hundreds of millions of shekels.
The suspects allegedly committed these offenses in cooperation with crime families from both the Jewish and Arab Israeli sectors.
Advancing individual interests
Those arrested worked to advance their interests in the municipality by biasing tenders, giving bribes, and providing benefits to the municipality's sanitation department employees and their associates in exchange for winning bids and cooperating in committing the offenses. They are also suspected of conflicts of interest and fraud.
The investigation further revealed that these cleaning companies issued and deducted fake invoices amounting to hundreds of millions of shekels, pocketing tens of millions of shekels.
The investigation, which is ongoing, is being conducted under the supervision of the VAT and Customs Prosecutor's Office and the Taxation and Economy Prosecutor's Office.
The suspects detained during the raid of the municipality were brought in for questioning at the National Crime Unit's offices.
Upon completing the questioning and based on the findings, they will be brought for a remand hearing at the Magistrate's Court in Rishon Lezion.