Background
- The third indictment concerns the construction of a VMware laboratory for the Iron Dome project at ELTA's factory. The project's content initially included, among other things, VMware virtualization systems and NetApp storage systems.
- The evidence shows that at the relevant time, VMware was a groundbreaking technology that had not yet been actually tested in IAI's operational systems. This meant that winning the project and supplying the equipment to the lab, beyond the economic aspect, would bring prestige to the winner as someone who introduced the technology to a civil appeal (Shahar, p. 3367, paras. 17-29, Wei and Harel wanted the project in order to prove to a civil appeal that they knew how to do a VMware lab; P/557(3), paras. 323-328; Oshri, p. 4528, paras. 1-4, winning the project was important for reasons of prestige, Although this is not a big deal, in order to show Wei's ability to establish a quality laboratory in a unique project; See also p. 4496, paras. 16-21, the technology had not yet been tested in operational systems at that time).
- In the project, this indictment was made on the dates prior to the request to Wei and Harel to give preliminary active price quotes to the project's technical director. This activity included conduct between the project's personnel and Wee, in which Wei carried out various preliminary actions in a civil appeal, including a pilot for the project. At a later stage, the procurement officials entered the picture in a civil appeal and asked for quotes from Vi and Harel.
As we shall see below, Wee raises claims on the basis of its preliminary activity. Among other things, Wei claimed that her win was determined in advance by the project's entities and that the request for quotations from the procurement that followed was fictitious and a competition for the sake of appearance only, and that even for this reason, the arrangement attributed in the indictment does not constitute prohibited coordination. These arguments – which were raised in one form or another as well as in the framework of additional charges – will be addressed separately.