The State Prosecutor’s Office submitted an indictment to the Haifa District Court against Ze'ev Dolinsky, who served as an assistant to the then-President Reuven Rivlin, for bribery offenses. Additionally, an indictment was filed against Nissim Cohen, who served as a parliamentary assistant and driver to Yitzhak Vaknin, who served as Minister of Religious Services, for bribery and money laundering offenses. Dolinsky is accused of accepting over 6 million shekels in bribes, while Cohen is accused of accepting tens of thousands of shekels in bribes. The indictment also implicates 13 additional defendants in offenses including bribery, bribery facilitation, money laundering, and other crimes.
According to the indictment, filed by Attorney Ido Nolman from the Tax and Economics Division of the State Prosecutor's Office, while Dolinsky was a senior assistant to Reuven Rivlin in his roles as a Member of Knesset, Speaker of the Knesset, and President of Israel, he worked with Adam Shuster, his childhood friend and business entrepreneur, to advance international marketing ventures for hepatitis vaccines and a business venture in medical cannabis. It was agreed between them that in exchange for Dolinsky's assistance in promoting these ventures, using his position and status, he would be entitled to receive half of the profits. Dolinsky frequently and indistinguishably involved himself in the private business affairs of himself and Shuster. Among other things, Dolinsky arranged meetings for Shuster in the Knesset with public officials, elected representatives, businesspeople, and investors; arranged Shuster’s participation in Knesset committee meetings; and attempted to obtain letters of recommendation from ministers for Shuster. All this was done while concealing his business involvement from the public officials and employees he approached. Dolinsky also connected Shuster with international delegations and businesspeople visiting the President’s Residence and even presented himself as a business consultant at one of Shuster’s companies, alongside his role as a presidential advisor. For promoting the vaccination project, Dolinsky took a bribe of 6 million shekels.
In another case, Dolinsky and another defendant jointly solicited a bribe of 100,000 shekels from someone else for using Dolinsky’s public role and connections to help advance the establishment of a waste recycling plant. Additionally, while Dolinsky served as a presidential advisor, he took bribes totalling thousands of shekels, using his public position and connections in exchange for promoting requests from other defendants and private individuals. These requests dealt with matters such as admission to preparatory courses for medical licensing exams, obtaining entry visas to Israel, medical internships, clemency requests, passing government licensing exams, and advancing the establishment of a gas station on land owned by one of the defendants.
The indictment also states that defendant Nissim Cohen, while serving as parliamentary advisor to Knesset member Yitzhak Vaknin and later as Vaknin’s driver when he was Minister of Religious Services, accepted tens of thousands of shekels in bribes. This was in exchange for using his public role and connections to promote requests from other defendants and private individuals. These requests involved issues like obtaining status in Israel, entry visas to Israel, passing government licensing exams, and tax relief, among others. As part of his efforts, Cohen also approached the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Health, the Minister of Defence, and additional public officials.
The case is being investigated by the Lahav 433 unit of the Israel Police.
