The documents were presented to the customs brokers by Yehoshua Shlosh, ostensibly on behalf of the ICT and JCC companies, and for the purpose of releasing the goods, false supplier accounts were attached, most of which significantly reduced the import costs, with the intention of bringing about a maximum reduction in the payment of import taxes.
In most cases, the goods reached defendant 4, the owner of OPCI, and these were offered for sale at prices significantly lower than the purchase prices of the goods.
Such an accumulation of similar characteristics is unusual and certainly not a coincidence, but rather an orderly and systematic plan designed to generate handsome financial profits at the expense of the suppliers, who were left with their hands on their heads, and while deceiving the tax authorities of the State of Israel.
The halacha in this regard was summarized by the scholar Yaakov Kedmi in his book, On the Evidence, Part Two (Combined and Updated Edition, 5770-2009):
" When we are dealing with an offense that was committed using a unique method of execution – a method that can distinguish the perpetrator – the fact that in another case, the same defendant committed an offense while using the exact same method of execution (and this is an absolute 'identity'), indicates that he is the perpetrator of the current offense.
In such a case, the method of execution serves as a kind of 'business card' for the defendant, and as someone who repeats and commits an offense using a special method of execution that is characteristic of him only, as if he left his business card at the place of execution ." (ibid., at p. 712).
Even if the "method of execution" is not sufficient for the purpose of convicting a defendant, as the sole evidence, there is no doubt that this is a significant evidentiary addition to the rest of the prosecution's evidence, and it may even serve as evidence of assistance to other testimony that requires assistance (see, for example, Criminal Appeal 3762/97 Steinberger v. State of Israel, unpublished [published in Nevo] – given on December 31, 1997).