Serious indictment against Shimon Sher, former deputy mayor of Netanya

December 28, 2020   

The Economic Department of the State Attorney's Office filed an indictment today (Monday) with the Central District Court against Shimon Sher, Deputy Mayor of Netanya and former Chairman of the Planning and Building Subcommittee of the Netanya Local Planning and Building Committee, for taking bribes and multiple offenses of fraud and breach of trust. Suffering from a medical problem? Feeling alone? • Can earn 6,400 NIS per month from the situation According to the indictment, between 2011 and 2016, the defendant, a leader of the Sanz Hasidim, served as deputy mayor of Netanya and chairman of the subcommittee for planning and construction of the local committee in Netanya, and a member of the "Committee of Two" - which is the licensing authority committee, which discusses applications for permits related to construction. According to the indictment, during his term, the defendant agreed with a real estate developer, who owns real estate projects in the city of Netanya, that the developer would donate to the institutions of the Sanz Hasidim, to which the defendant belongs. In exchange for his donation, the defendant would assist the developer in locating and promoting real estate projects in Netanya. In parallel with his position on the Netanya Planning and Building Committee, the defendant was very active in raising donations for the Sanz Hasidim institutions, and in particular for an institution called the "Orphanage." He worked to raise donations, among other things, through donation requests from stakeholders in the real estate sector in the city of Netanya. This group included real estate developers, contractors, and managers in companies dealing in real estate or other fields for which approvals of building plans and building permits were required from the committee headed by the defendant. As a result of the defendant's requests, the stakeholders transferred an amount of approximately 2 million shekels to the Sanz institutions. In parallel with the donation requests and their acceptance, the defendant continued to deal with the stakeholders' requests, approve them, and sign permits for the real estate projects they owned, with a serious conflict of interest that amounted to fraud and breach of trust. In addition, the defendant acted within the scope of his position and sphere of influence, while deviating from the norm, in order to help the Gali Sanz hotel avoid closure by the Netanya municipality despite the dilapidated condition of the building at the time. In doing so, he committed the offense of fraud and breach of trust. The case was investigated by the Israel Police's Lahav 433 Criminal Investigation Unit. The indictment was filed by attorneys Tal Farjoun, Sharifa Hamdova, Elad Ashkenazi, and Ward Leibovich from the Economic Department of the State Attorney's Office. On behalf of attorneys Amit Hadad, Noa Milstein and Yair Leshem of the Hadad Roth Shenhar law firm, who represent Shimon Sher, it was stated: ""In recent years, law enforcement authorities have been trying to claim that Rabbi Sher's public actions - both for the benefit of the residents of the city of Netanya and for the benefit of hundreds of needy people and orphans, actions that indisputably did not put a single penny into his private pocket - raise suspicion of committing offenses in the field of morality. This is a position that lacks both a moral and legal basis. The decision to file an indictment shows that the prosecution accepted the claims we presented during the hearing process almost in full. Thus, suspicion of committing 15 bribery offenses was reduced to an indictment that attributes, also by mistake, only one bribery offense that is also based on problematic testimony that was improperly collected. "We are confident that the court will also prove that the indictment that was filed is baseless.".