The clear trend of concealment detailed above constitutes a significant evidentiary indication of the existence of an improper purpose on the part of the bestow.
Ben-Eliezer's affidavit and testimony in the tax appeal
- There is no dispute that Ben-Eliezer was asked at the time of his testimony whether he received financial support from the defendant in any election campaign, and he answered in the negative, and whether there were other projects in Israel besides the gas search for which the defendant enlisted to help, and he replied that he did not know about this (P/119).
I do not believe that there is room to decide the question of whether Ben-Eliezer's answers can be viewed as misleading, or whether it was legitimate for him to respond in a specific manner to the questions to which he was asked. This position stems, inter alia, from the fact that I do not have before me Ben-Eliezer's version of the issue, but mainly because I do not believe that this is a question of significance for a decision.
For the purpose of deciding on this point, it is sufficient for me to determine that the contents that came up in Ben-Eliezer's affidavit and his testimony in court were intended to support – and so they did in practice – the defendant's claim about the center of his life. Ben-Eliezer described the circumstances of his acquaintance with the defendant, the relationship that the defendant established as part of his business activity, and his meetings at the defendant's home in Russia.
The nature and strength of the personal relationship that was forged between the defendant and Ben-Eliezer
- In this chapter I will deal with the personal aspect of the relationship that was forged between the defendant and Ben-Eliezer, as emerged from the various testimonies, and detached from those economic interests that I discussed in the course of the discussion in the "second and fifth time stations".
- There is no dispute that the beginning of Ben-Eliezer and the defendant's personal acquaintance was in 2008. Despite the fact that only about three years had passed from the said date to the date of the transfer of the money, the defendant persisted in his claim that he had forged a true friendship with Ben-Eliezer.
The defendant stated as follows in his testimony in court: