Here, too, the evidence linking defendant 1 to the release of the containers, without payment for them, is circumstantial evidence. It is worth mentioning that according to the version of defendant 1, he was of the opinion that since the reservations detailed in the letter of credit had not been removed, the supplier withdrew the goods, and thus the case was "closed". According to the defendant, he had no knowledge that the containers were being released, and he did not know of Yehoshua Chelouche's involvement in their release. With regard to the four containers that were stored in the Okeanos warehouse in Kibbutz Yakum, Defendant 1 claimed that the goods belonged to a person named Shimon Berger, whose help in selling them was sought by CPA Natan Harpaz, in order to repay Berger's debts to Harpaz himself, and to the defendant. The defendant further claimed that he did not know that the computer monitors that CPA Harpaz requested to market were the same monitors from the additional containers that relate to the transaction under discussion. Hence, according to him, he cannot be charged with knowingly selling stolen goods or goods for which they were not paid.
This version is not reliable to me at all, and as I noted in the introduction to this chapter, I do not trust the words of Defendant 1, who left me with the impression of someone who does not hesitate to utter false statements, and even to raise fictional and illogical versions, as long as it serves his cause. All of the factors mentioned by the defendant do not support his version, according to which four containers containing computer monitors arrived at an ocean warehouse in the universe by chance, which, according to him, were not the same containers sent by the supplier from Taiwan. CPA Harpaz denied the defendant's version, categorically, and claimed that he did not know the people mentioned by the defendant. I find no reason to doubt these words of Harpaz, and in any case of contradiction between them and the words of defendant 1, I accept his testimony, and I prefer it without any hesitation. It can be concluded that there is no basis for the claim that the four containers, which were stored in the Okeanos warehouse, were intended for the repayment of a debt, and that this, as it were, has nothing to do with the transaction that is the subject of the letter of credit. In this regard, it is worth referring to the report of the confrontation between Defendant 1 and CPA Harpaz dated May 28, 1999 (P/306), in which Harpaz also claimed that he did not know the parties named by the defendant, including "an American Jew named Yosef Heller".