As to the claim that the Sevilla and JCC companies did not maintain books as required, it was argued that defendant 1 was not the owner, manager or controlling shareholder of these companies and therefore he was not responsible for managing the books of accounts in the aforementioned companies.
In light of the above, Defendant 1 seeks his acquittal of the charges attributed to him in the 17th Charge.
Hearing and Decision on Charge No. 17
- In this indictment, we are dealing with the sale of 300 bags of coffee, which were released from customs, by the customs broker, Shai Customs Agents 1997 Ltd., in accordance with two import licenses (P/106 and P/107). In the import receipts, the importer's name appears as "JCC International Jerusalem".
As I have already stated in my previous statements, JCC is a straw company, which was established by defendant 1 and Yehoshua Shlosh, in order to use it to commit some of the offenses described in the indictment.
The testimony of the customs broker, Shlomo Arsban, indicates that he himself handled the release of the coffee bags, when he received the necessary documents from Yehoshua Shlosh.
The 300 bags of coffee were sold to a person named George Swidan, who stated in his statement, dated February 11, 2001 (P/308), that he had executed the coffee transaction with a person named Mahfoud Shloufi from Nazareth. As part of the transaction, he received a tax invoice on behalf of the Savilla company (invoice No. 4, document 2491 in P/307). According to this invoice, which was issued on November 30, 1999, the cost of the goods is NIS 179,999.00. In exchange for the goods, the buyer handed over checks to Sevilla's order.
The broker in the transaction, Mahfouz Shlopi, stated in his statement of February 21, 2001 (P/307) that he was involved in transactions in which he brokered between the importer and the buyer in exchange for a commission. In the coffee deal, he mediated between Uri Resch and George Swidan, with his commission amounting to NIS 4,000, in accordance with the agreement between him and defendant 1.