Admittedly, as the prosecution argued in its summaries, the case law recognized the possibility that even an interest-free loan can be considered a "gift", and there are certainly cases in which a loan becomes a "grant" (as may have been the case in this case), but the relevant point in time for examining criminal intent is the point in time when the loan was granted, and my determination focuses on adopting the defendant's words, according to which he was asked to give a loan, intended to give a loan and gave a loan.
(e) The loan was openly transferred directly from the defendant's personal bank account to Ben-Eliezer's bank account, and without the defendant making any effort to conceal it - Although it is possible to find cases in which the transfer of a sum of money openly to a public figure would be considered an improper transfer and as a basis for a conviction for the offense of bribery (see, for example, the case of defendant 2), it is clear that the absence of a trend of concealment constitutes a certain evidentiary indication that supports the defendant's version.
In its summary, the defense argued that the mention of the loan in the capital declaration submitted by the defendant can be seen as an additional indication, which indicates the absence of a motif of concealment. Admittedly, there was no dispute that the loan was recorded in the defendant's declaration of capital (P/90), but according to the prosecution's approach, there is no evidentiary weight to this figure, since the declaration was submitted only on September 9, 2014, i.e., more than two months after his last police interrogation. On the other hand, and in response to the prosecution's argument, the defense explained that the data was transferred to the accountant shortly after the loan was granted, so that the date of submission of the report, which is not under the control of the defendant, should not be regarded as impairing the weight of the argument. Given the fact that none of the parties testified about the accountant, Avidor Avni, who submitted the declaration of capital, and the issue of reporting to the accountant remained unclear, I did not see that this figure should be used for the defendant's duty or credit.