Avraham Hirchson

Former Israeli Finance Minister Sentenced for Theft from Union

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Fri, 06/26/2009 - 15:47

Avraham HirchsonAvraham Hirchson was finance minister for Israel from May 2006 to July 2007. But it's what he did in the preceding years that led to the end of his career. On Wednesday, June 24, an Israeli court sentenced Hirchson to five years and five months in prison for embezzling roughly 1.75 million shekels (US$600,000) from a labor union he'd headed during 1998-2005. Union Corruption Update last June reported that authorities had arrested Hirchson for embezzling at least $755,000 and possibly as much as $1.2 million from that country's National Workers Union, also known as National Workers Labor Federation. In all, nearly a dozen other persons, including his son Ofer, were nabbed. In addition to serving a sentence, Hirchson will have to pay a fine of 450,000 shekels.

Ex-Israeli Finance Minister Charged in Union Fraud Scandal

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Mon, 07/14/2008 - 00:00

Corruption might not rank quite as high as terrorism as the main concern of the Israelis.  But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist – or gets investigated or punished.  Just ask Avraham Hirchson, Israel’s finance minister during May 2006-July 2007.  As reported in these pages last September, Israeli police identified Hirchson as a central figure in a theft and money-laundering scheme that netted participants a combined $2.4 million from a prominent labor union.  Though not indicted at the time, it seemed only a matter of time that he would, especially given that at least five alleged participants themselves had been arrested in January 2007.  Now the indictment has come down.

Ex-Israeli Finance Minister May Be Indicted for Theft from Union

Submitted by Carl Horowitz on Mon, 09/24/2007 - 00:00

Terrorism may be by far the number-one problem for Israel, but that doesn’t mean its labor unions, or government officials who work with them, get a free pass.  Law enforcement officials in the small Middle East nation, at least, aren’t looking the other way.  This cannot be said of certain ranking government officials.  On September 2, Israeli police recommended that former Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson be indicted for stealing millions of dollars from a trade union during and possibly after the period he’d headed it.  Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says there is “substantial evidence” that Hirchson in 2003 embezzled and laundered $2.4 million from the National Workers’ Union (NWU).  Hirchson has not been indicted, but that could change over the next several weeks.  He resigned his government post in July.

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