One of the main suspects in the Israeli police submarine corruption investigation, Miki Ganor, on Friday signed an agreement to turn state’s evidence. Ganor is expected to incriminate Avriel Bar Yosef, who served as deputy head of the National Security Council and Maj. Gen. (res.) Eliezer (Cheney) Marom, the former Navy commander.
Special crimes unit Lahav 433, which handles as many as four concurrent corruption cases, some of which involve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and all of which involve people in his intimate circle, suspect Ganor of bribing Bar Yosef and Marom to help get him the job as the Israeli rep for German multinational conglomerate ThyssenKrupp AG, on his way to carrying out the multi-submarine purchase which earned him millions. Under the Friday agreement, Ganor will serve a year in prison and pay a fine of roughly $2.8 million.
Ganor told his interrogators he has additional information about other senior officials in the defense establishment who were involved in transactions with the German shipyards. It is possible that in the coming days police will summon for interrogations those very senior IDF and defense establishment officials on suspicion of receiving a bribe. Ganor meanwhile is expected to be released from jail under restrictive conditions in one to two weeks.
Ganor will turn over his passport to police and was forbidden to leave Israel for three months. He is also forbidden from contacting individuals involved in the affair for at least two months. His bail has been set at half a million dollars, as well as a third-party guarantee to the tune of will be paid in the amount of about $55,000.