Nochi Dankner sentenced to 2 years in jail for market manipulation

Israeli businessman Nochi Dankner, who was convicted of manipulating the market, was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday morning.

Tel Aviv District Court Judge Chaled Kabub also ordered Dankner, the former IDB Holding Corp. controlling shareholder, to pay an NIS 800, 000 ($209, 000) fine and an additional year suspended sentence.

ISP Financial Services owner Itay Strum, who was found guilty of helping Dankner carry out the market manipulation, was sentenced to one year in prison.

Dankner was convicted of all of the charges against him—fraudulently influencing security rates fluctuations, driving or attempting to drive purchases of securities, and “forbidden property” transactions. Strum was convicted on similar charges.

In his sentencing, Judge Kabub noted that “The offenses were carried out by someone who, at the time, was the most prominent and well-known figure in Israel in general and in the capital market in particular. This wasn’t a one-time slip, but actions done by the defendants over the course of three trading days. It’s hard to accurately assess the damage caused to investors from the public, but it is not difficult to determine that the defendants violated the basic principle of an efficient and fair and capital market.”

Prosecutor Hannah Korin noted “the court stated today and quite a few times before that Dankner’s main objective was to maintain his control of IDB Holdings, and that was the main motive for his actions.”

“I believe that the serious conviction and the sentencing handed out to day help preserve the integrity, fairness and transparency at the capital market, ” she added.

Dankner refused to comment on the sentencing. At the request of his lawyer, Judge Kabub determined that the start of Dankner’s imprisonment will be postponed by 45 days.

Dankner, a favorite of Israel’s business community, was often credited with helping rescue Israel’s economy at the height of thePalestinian uprising. Under his leadership, IDB became Israel’s largest holding company and Dankner became a celebrity.

In July, Dankner was found guilty of carrying out millions of dollars’ worth of fraudulent transactions in an attempt to influence the share price of his troubled company for its February 2012 securities issue.

On February 23, 2012, IDB held a successful securities issue in which it raised NIS 321 million ($83 million). In the institutional phase the company raised NIS 286 million ($74 million) and the public offering yielded NIS 35 million ($9 million) in requests. The offering aimed to beef up IDB’s cash reserves so the company could meet its financial obligations to its bondholders.

Dankner is suspected of providing the finances for a scam involving the purchase of IDB stock on the day it was issued. That day, IDB Holdings’ stock registered unusually high activity on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange.

Suspicions are that Dankner was involved in manipulating the market on the day of issue—in other words, he is suspected of being involved in a massive acquisition of IDB Holdings stock, along with broker Adi Yehuda Sheleg and financier Itay Strum.

The stock acquisition was likely aimed at maintaining the stock’s value ahead of the issue. Once the issue ended, IDB Holdings’ stock began plummeting.

Dankner, who at the time was chairman of IDB’s board and one of the owners of its controlling interest, allegedly financed the scam with his own resources and recruited other parties who, according to his instructions, purchased stock that was bought by Sheleg and the other accomplices in order to provide the finances to keep the scam going.

IDB, whose holdings include a major mobile phone carrier and a leading supermarket chain, took on millions of dollars in debts following a series of bad business deals. The courts wrestled control of IDB away from Dankner as a result.

By Ynet News