The Israel Police fraud unit of Lahav 433 opened an investigation Monday into alleged criminal acts of fraud, bribery, and breach of trust by Transportation Minister Miri Regev and her staff, following an exposé broadcast last month on Channel 13's HaMakor.
Investigators raided the Transportation Ministry in Jerusalem Monday, conducting searches and seizing documents.
What crimes did Miri Regev allegedly commit?
Legal expert Dr. Yuval Karniel addressed the criminal issue arising from the exposé in a conversation with Maariv and said, "Indeed, these actions by Miri Regev, if and when proven in court, constitute serious criminal offenses. The first of them is breach of trust, whereby a public official is prohibited from exercising governmental powers and distributing public funds or benefits and reliefs, except according to the broad public interest. It is a crime for a public official to do so according to their interests.
"This is not only a criminal breach of trust, but in some cases, it is also bribery, since there is an acceptance of a benefit in exchange for acts of a public official, for the benefit of those giving the bribe," he clarified. "In addition, the exposé reveals a series of other offenses, such as forgery of documents, when the minister adds to summaries the words 'according to the recommendation of professionals,' even when there is no such recommendation, or when the recommendation is the opposite.
"There is also a suspicion of fraudulently obtaining a benefit and even extortion by threats. In some cases, the minister's actions could amount to additional criminal charges when there is a risk to human life due to flawed decisions stemming from extraneous interests.
"The huge budget of one of the largest and most important ministries of the State of Israel has become a tool in Miri Regev's hands to promote her personal interests, at the serious expense of the public, safety, vital infrastructure, and public transportation. The damage caused here to the public is enormous," he added. "The importance lies in the corruption of an entire ministry, of the minister's office as a whole, and of government departments working with the ministry and being dependent on its decisions. We are talking about tens of billions of shekels and thousands of employees who depend on the decisions of the Transportation Ministry."
Afterward, Dr. Karniel was asked whether this is how the entire public service operates. He blamed the centralization of power in Israel for the damage done to public services.
"All local authorities and transportation infrastructure in Israel depend on the ministry and the minister's office. This is the most centralized mechanism in the Western world," he explained. "A head of a local authority cannot move a traffic light or sign without approval, and many of the infrastructures connecting communities are centralized [in the minister's] hands. Even the transportation infrastructure budgets are centralized under the ministry's and minister's control."
A statement from Transportation Minister Miri Regev said: "It is regrettable that a few weeks after the publication of Raviv Drucker's false exposé, the Israel Police came to search for documents that do not exist at the Transportation Ministry. The truth is simple – this is a fabricated exposé; there was no preference on a political basis. The Transportation Ministry allocates its budgets in accordance with policy and the decision of the professionals, and any other claim is false. The Transportation Ministry will cooperate with the investigation in order to prove how baseless the claims raised by Drucker in his exposé are."