Fuel-fraud kingpin jailed 40 months, fined ₪1 million

Ramle Magistrate's Court sentenced Raad Shaar to 40 months in prison, a ₪1 million fine and suspended jail time for his role in a sprawling fuel-sector fraud in which operators issued and deducted fictitious invoices worth millions of shekels. Deputy President Judge Doreen Saban Noy handed down the sentence after Shaar pleaded guilty under a plea bargain.

The case, known as the "Kochav Nolad" affair, involved a sophisticated criminal network that operated in the fuel sector between 2013 and 2018. Shaar and his ex-wife, Inas Shweiki, a professional accountant, created and supplied the false infrastructure for the criminal operation, including forged documents and fictitious identity cards.

According to the court's ruling, the main defendants in the case, Shlomo Yaacobson and Zeev Shamein, were charged with distributing and deducting fictitious invoices totalling ₪156 million in tax. They paid Shaar and his ex-wife a commission of 30 agorot for every litre of fuel listed on the invoices, netting the couple millions of shekels over the course of the scheme.

The criminal network operated systematically for five years, using the forged infrastructure supplied by Shaar and Shweiki. Shaar caused significant damage to the state treasury, as businesses deducted VAT based on invoices that did not reflect real transactions.

Under the plea agreement, the parties requested a joint prison sentence of 40 months and argued openly over the other components of the punishment. Judge Saban Noy accepted the parties' request regarding the prison component and imposed 40 months' actual imprisonment, a fine of ₪1 million, and a suspended sentence of several months on condition that Shaar does not commit offences classified as felonies or misdemeanours under the VAT Law for three years.

The case was handled by attorneys Or Hadaya, deputy director of the Central Legal Unit, and attorneys Eitan Lamei and Dvir Amar. The investigation was conducted by the Tax Authority's Tel Aviv investigations unit.

This case joins a series of serious tax-fraud cases uncovered in recent years, and demonstrates the ongoing efforts of enforcement authorities to combat the phenomenon of fictitious invoices. As similar cases show, such schemes inflict severe damage on the public purse and undermine the rule of law.