| Central-Lod District Court |
| Criminal Case 6040-07-20 State of Israel v. Shkovitzky et al.
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| Before | The Honorable Senior Judge, Michal Barnett |
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In the matter: |
State of Israel | |
| The Accuser | ||
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Against
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| 1. Arkady Szczechoslovaki
2. Natalia Szkwitzky
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| The Defendants | ||
Verdict
Overview
- Defendant 1 (hereinafter: "the defendant"), defendant 2 (hereinafter: "the defendant") and three others (defendant 3 Doron Tavorinsky (hereinafter: "Tavorinsky"), defendant 4 Assaf Klaus (hereinafter: "Klaus") and defendant 5 Binyamin Biton (hereinafter: "Biton")) were indicted in an affair known as "The Money Cage". The case of defendants 3-5 was terminated, after these defendants pleaded guilty to amended indictments as part of plea bargains and were sentenced. We are therefore concerned with the defendant and the defendant, his wife at the time. All the charges are directed against the defendant, while only indictment No. 15 is also directed against the defendant (hereinafter: "the defendants").
I will add that in four separate indictments, Aharon Shaked, Shlomo Hatuka, Reuven Gonen and Benny Bezov were indicted, all of whom confessed and were convicted, each according to his part, and testified as part of the prosecution's case.
- The open investigation ("the breach") began in November 2018, and the indictment against the defendants was filed in July 2020 after a hearing process. As part of the indictment, a request for confiscation of property was also filed under Section 21(a) of the Prohibition of Money Laundering Law, 5760-2000 (hereinafter: the "Prohibition of Money Laundering Law") and under Section 297(a)(1) of the Penal Law, 5737-1977 (hereinafter: the "Penal Law").
The prosecution's case was opened in July 2021 and was extended due to the cancellation of evidentiary dates during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as in light of the defense attorney's request to cancel evidentiary dates due to reserve duty during the "Iron Sword" War. There were 25 evidentiary hearings in the case, in which many witnesses were heard. Many exhibits were submitted, including a CD with audio files of wiretapping (P/19), accompanied by five binders of transcripts of the conversations. There are two listening stations: one on the defendant's phone subscription number, which operated from January 2018 and intermittently until the "hacked", and the second on the defendant's phone subscription number, which operated from September 2018 until the day after the "hack" (p. 6 of the accuser's summaries).