The defendant is acquitted of the other offenses under the VAT Law, insofar as it relates to invoices Nos. 30 and 31 issued by ICT to Seville.
I will note at this stage that there is evidentiary value, to the extent of aiding or strengthening the prosecution's evidence, to the fact that the criminal activity described in the framework of Charges 3-7 was carried out using the same method (with minor changes), and the identical pattern of action can indicate both the identity of those involved and the criminal plan that was hatched between them.
In this regard, I will discuss later, while presenting the relevant rulings.
Charge No. 4
- Most of the facts described in this indictment are similar, or even identical, to the facts described in Charges 5-7, so that a significant part of the evidence is common to these charges. Determining the factual basis for this indictment will obviously make it superfluous to decide factually on most of the facts described in the other charges.
According to the prosecution, defendants 1 and 4 (including Yehoshua Shlosh, whose trial was separated), through defendant 3 and the firm "Forum Office Import and Export" contracted with the supplier, the company European Technical Trading from Luxembourg, in a deal for the purchase of computer processors, ostensibly for the company ICC, in the territories of the Palestinian Authority.
In my remarks regarding the third charge, I have already expressed my opinion regarding the ICC, and noted that this is not a real company with business activity in the territories of the Palestinian Authority. I added in the context of the previous indictment that this company was falsely represented by defendant 1 as the person behind the imports.
Here, too, the import transaction was supposed to be carried out using the documentation method for collection, through the Arab Bank, in the city of Ramallah.
There is no dispute that the goods were received during the month of July 2000 by the freight forwarder, Transclal, which was supposed to hold them until the release of the import documents, which were sent at the same time, to the Arab Bank.