The defendant wishes to reject, categorically, Alon Granot's false denials, in the context of his involvement in the continuation of the transaction.
Here, too, defendant 1 claimed that he was not involved in the process of releasing the goods from customs, but that it was done by Schloss through the customs broker of Masa, Albanian.
Since defendant 1 is not familiar with Plan's sales account, and he did not produce it, he does not know whether the sale account and the registration made pursuant to it are false, even though to the best of his knowledge it is a sale account that reflects the adoption of the aforementioned transaction.
As to the allegation of forgery and fraud against Mizrahi Bank, it was argued by defendant 1 that the prosecution did not present any evidence that it was a fake proforma account, and therefore it is not possible to allege forgery and fraud against the bank. Reliance on the appearance of the account, without presenting an expert opinion on the matter, cannot serve as sufficient evidence for the commission of offenses of forgery and fraud.
It was further claimed that even if it was a forged document, the person interested in forging it was Alon Granot, since it was an account in favor of Magnum, and in paper products that are Magnum's area of business.
The prosecution's request to convict the defendant of the offenses of forgery of a document and fraudulent receipt arose at a late stage of the trial, without giving defendant 1 a proper opportunity to defend himself, and thus constituting a violation of the defendant's right to a fair trial. It was also argued that in light of the late stage in which the claim was first raised, the statute of limitations applies to this offense.
In light of the above, defendant 1 seeks his acquittal of the charges attributed to him in the eleventh charge.
Defendant 1's arguments regarding indictment 12
- Also involved in this transaction, the dealer Karim Bekir ordered, through the company Mand Electric, television sets from Chugh Electronics [S] Pte. Limited from Singapore. Defendant 1 claims that Bekir was unable to open documentary credit through his bank account and therefore contacted him in order to locate a financier for him. The defendant referred Bakir to Calderon, who agreed to open a documentary credit for him through the Lantex company he owns. In order to examine Bekir's collateral and their quality, the defendant needed various details regarding the order and the supplier, and against this background the details were recorded in the defendant's diary. The credit letter indicates that the address for sending the documents to Mand Electric was the address of the Merig company, which is based in Rishpon. Defendant 1 claims that this was done at Bakir's request, because he used to provide the company's Israeli address during his transactions abroad, in order to be portrayed as an Israeli businessman. Here, too, Bakir hired the services of the Schloss company for the purpose of releasing the goods, in order to simplify and streamline the release process, with the reference to Schloss being made by Shlomo Matuk. In order to enable the release of the goods, it was agreed that Schloss would be recorded as the opener of the documentary credit and as an informed person on the bill of lading. As such, the documents, including the sales account, were registered in the name of Schloss, but it was noted that they were sent in accordance with the order of Mand Electric. According to Defendant 1, Elhanan Tenenbaum was involved in this transaction, already at the stage of opening the documentary credit. Here, too, the need arose to adopt the deal, since Bekir's customers retracted their desire to purchase the goods. Therefore, the wall was directed to the Planes company through Shlomo Metok. Defendant 1 claims that in this transaction he did not mediate himself between Bekir and Plan.
Planes adopted the deal and stepped into the shoes of Mand Electric, while acquiring the rights in the documents and the goods, at a lower value in accordance with the price in the international market.