Contrary to the prosecution's claims, the defense claimed that defendant 1 specialized in the world of international trade and non-bank financing, and that his role was to mediate between the various parties, while carrying out complex actions and formulating a creative commercial and financial construction.
The defendant's role was to liaise between the client and the financier of the transaction. He should have assessed the risks and potential prospects inherent in the realization of the transaction and presented them to the financier. After locating the mechanisms, and in order to minimize the risks, the defendant's role was to assist both parties, the financier and the client, in drafting the relevant professional documents, in order to best protect their interests.
Preliminary Arguments for Charges 1 and 2, on behalf of Defendant 1
- In a general reference to the fraudulent allegations directed against defendant 1 in the framework of charges 1 and 2, the defense argues that they have no basis in reality and that there was no fraudulent intention on the part of defendant 1, and that the prosecution certainly did not prove this beyond a reasonable doubt.
The defendant does not deny that he served as an intermediary between clients who approached him and foreign funding entities-banker, with the aim of trying to reach an arrangement of external financing-A banker by opening a letter of credit, for the purpose of importing goods from abroad. He also does not deny that he served as a financial advisor specializing in credit transactions and that he assisted in drafting requests to open letters of credit. In the financial situations that arose, in the framework of the transactions that are the subject of charges 1 and 2, the defendant proposed creative solutions to the complex and unique difficulties and problems that arose.
Defendant 1 vehemently denies that he was the party who ordered the goods from the suppliers or was involved in ordering the goods or had an interest in ordering the goods. The orderer of the goods in the first indictment was Haim Buchris and in the second indictment Avi Kalmaro, defendant 4.