The prosecution claims that it only later discovered that the coffee was received fraudulently, and that it is possible that Mahfouz Shlofi was involved in the commission of an offense, and that due to the late discovery, no indictment was filed against him. According to the prosecution's approach, this does not change anything in the case of defendant 1, who issued a fictitious invoice from the Sevilla company, knowing that it was a shell company, whose sole function was to produce fictitious invoices.
In light of this, the prosecution seeks to convict the defendant of the offenses attributed to him on this charge.
Defendant 1's arguments regarding the 17th charge
- Defendant 1 denies that he, together with Yehoshua Shlosh, submitted to the Customs the import receipts P/106 and P/107 in the name of JCC, and through the customs broker, Shai Customs Agents Ltd. He also denies that after the release of the coffee beans from customs, he sold them through invoice No. 4 of the Savilla company in the sum of NIS 179,999, knowing that it was a fictitious invoice. Defendant 1 claims that he did not submit the records and handle the release of the goods, but Yehoshua Shlosh, who presented himself as having the right to act on behalf of JCC.
Defendant 1 further claims that he is not the owner, manager or controlling shareholder of JCC and that he did not carry out any act of releasing goods, or submitting licenses on its behalf. In addition, the defendant repeatedly claims that he is not the manager, owner or controlling shareholder of Sevilla.
To the best of Defendant 1's knowledge, Invoice No. 4 was issued by "Haim" who is Kobi Zoaretz, the entity authorized to order the issuance of invoices on behalf of the Company.
It was further claimed that to the best of defendant 1's knowledge, there was indeed a real transaction between the Savilla company and the buyer, in the framework of which the company sold coffee beans to George Sweidan.
According to what was given to defendant 1 by Mahfouz Shlofi, the orderer of the goods was a resident of Nablus named Muhammad Abu Rashid, while defendant 1 had no part in ordering the goods and in contact with the supplier. Shlofe contacted Yehoshua Shlosh directly in order to release the goods, and Shlosh did so through JCC, and here too defendant 1 had no part in the stage of releasing the goods.