Second Criminal Investigation Against Olmert Opens

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has instructed the police to launch a criminal investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert regarding his purchase of a private home on Cremieux Street in Jerusalem when he was Mayor of Jerusalem (in October 2004). Olmert is suspected of receiving a hefty discount on the apartment's purchase price from the contractor, Alumot, in return for his acting to speed up the approval of construction permits for the project.

The affair was initially exposed by investigative website NFC, which filed formal complaints against Olmert with the State Comptroller and the AG in February of 2006. The discount Olmert received in the apartment's purchase is suspected to have totaled about $500,000 (according the the Comptroller, he paid $1.2 million but the home's true value was about $1.7 million). In April of 2007 the Comptroller presented the results of his inquiry to the AG, without specifically recommending one course of action or another. More