Miralishvili's victory: His brother appealed the rabbinical ruling and was ordered to pay 18 million $

January 14, 2016   

The Supreme Court ruled this week that Gabriel Miralli will pay his brother, billionaire Michael Miralliashvili, $18.5 million as part of their bitter dispute over control of Maxbet, a company that operates casinos and online gambling.

 Here is the story, which involves a lot of money, a rabbinical court, and the courts - in short: The two brothers, who are in a bitter business dispute over control of the company, held an arbitration before three judges: Rabbi Pinchas Bronfman, Rabbi Yitzhak Segal, and Rabbi Chaim Wahab. During the hearing, Mirali claimed that his signature on an agreement that was at the heart of the dispute was forged.

The judges did not accept his argument, and made it clear that it was irrelevant to the verdict.

Mirali appealed to the Tel Aviv District Court and requested that the arbitration award be annulled for two reasons: A. The claim of forgery of the agreement. B. The claim of conflict of interest – one of the judges, Rabbi Bronfman, married off his daughter, and his brother Michael attended the wedding and even gave the couple a gift.

District Court Judge Yehudit Shevah rejected Mirali's request. In her ruling, she noted that the claim of forgery only concerns two pages of the agreement in a copy whose origin is unclear, and added that there is evidence that contradicts the claim of forgery.

Regarding the claim that the brother attended the wedding of one of the judges, the judge mentioned that the applicant, Gabriel Mirali, was also invited to the wedding, and that Michael Miralishvili was at the wedding for only a few minutes and gave the usual gift for him - $1,000.

Mirali did not give up and filed an appeal to the Supreme Court.

According to the publication on the New 1 website, Judge Yoram Danziger rejected his appeal, joined by Judges Salim Joubran and Uri Shoham. Danziger rejected Mirali's request to present additional evidence of the alleged connection between his brother and the Badatz where the arbitrators serve, after it was determined that the evidence was already available during the district hearing.

In essence, Danziger ruled that there was no reason to interfere with Shevah's findings on the issue of forgery, among other things because, as mentioned, Mirali himself raised claims that contradict this claim and show that he did indeed sign the agreement in dispute.

Regarding the claims of bias, the Supreme Court Justice wrote that it was not proven that Brother Michael Mirlishvili's invitation to the wedding was out of the blue as he claimed, nor was the claim that his brother made donations to the Badatz or that there was an improper financial connection between him and the judges proven.

Danziger emphasized that he does not accept the claims about the arbitration procedures, since the parties agreed that minutes would not be kept, the arbitrators kept them as requested, and therefore there is no room for argument on this issue. The arbitrators also acted in accordance with the arbitration charter when they heard testimony on behalf of one party and when they did not forward the parties the mutual pleadings.

In addition to the $18 million, Mirali was also ordered to pay expenses of 20,000 shekels.

Mirali was represented by attorney Navot Tel-Tzur, and Miralishvili was represented by attorneys Giora Erdinst, Tomer Weissman, Arik Berneisen and Aviv Avnon.