BREAKING: Powerful Israeli Lawyer Who Ran Bribery Ring and Sought Sexual Favors in Return for Judicial Promotions, Arrested

UPDATE: As if the rest of this story wasn’t bad enough…Israeli media are now reporting (without naming Naveh) that he exchanged sexual favors with a magistrate and the wife of a magistrate in return for promoting the first to the district court and the second’s husband to the district court. Reports do not name the first female judge. But two Israeli sources have informed me that she is Eti Craif, a judge in the Netanya magistrate court. She was first named a judge in 2016.

The second incident involves Rafi Aranya’s wife, who allegedly had sexual relations with Naveh in return for her husband’s promotion, which never went forward. Both Naveh, Suzie Ozsinay-Aranya and Craif have been arrested and are being questioned by police. If you have a solid idea of who the female judge might be, be in touch.

A new report from an Israeli source adds further information regarding the not-so-secret police investigation of Israeli lawyer and president of the national bar association, Effi Naveh. Naveh has a raft of allegations stalking him: he faces possible criminal charges for violating Israeli border controls in smuggling his girlfriend into and out of Israel. There are separate accusations of rape and other sexual improprieties against him. But the new charges claim he operated a massive bribery scheme, by which he exploited his position on the judicial nominating committee for Israeli judges.

According to the report, he and a group of co-conspirators solicited bribes from judges and other judicial personnel who sought judgeships. This included existing judges who sought promotions, going even as high as the Supreme Court itself. Israeli media reports say that up to three suspects may have their “detention extended.” This is the first intimation that anyone has been arrested in the scandal. Included within this group is what reports call the “central suspect,” who is most assuredly Naveh.

Here is the translation of what the source sent:

Effi Naveh ran a ring which promoted judges and lawyers in return for bribes or other favors. Among those involved in the effort:

♦ Barak Lezer, the legal advisor of the court administration;
♦ Ayelet Pilo, spokesman for the court administration;
♦ Michael Shapira, senior officer of the Supreme Court.

The conspirators promoted these judges in return for bribes: Yosef Elron, currently a judge on the Supreme Court. They also promoted judges from the magistrates court to the district court. The evidence which first exposed the case was coincidentally exposed in 2017 when attorney, Barak Lezer was arrested…His telephones and computers were seized and examined. On his smartphone…[police] found text messages he exchanged with Effi Naveh (bribe taker) and Yosef Elron (bribe giver), in which they discussed the bribe and promotion of judicial candidates.

The case of Lezer and Naveh was closed after several months by the state prosecutor. However, after Naveh…made accusations against state prosecutor, Shai Nitzan on the TV program, Uvdah, the latter reopened the intelligence file against Naveh and instructed the police to investigate the accusations against the attorney and his group, involved in court administration.

The police investigative unit in turn sought a gag order from the Netanya magistrates court and not from the Rishon LeZion court, as is the custom. They were concerned about one of the magistrates there who was close to Naveh. He is Judge Rafi Aranya and specifically his wife, attorney Susie Ozsinay-Aranya, both of whom are exceedingly close to Naveh.

The police didn’t want details of the investigation to spread to other judges of the Rishon LeZion court. They sought to prevent the information from being leaked to Aranya or any of his judicial colleagues.

If this report is accurate, Shai Nitzan might want to explain why at first he failed to rock the corrupt judicial boat, when he closed the investigation against Naveh; only to reopen it when Naveh had the temerity to attack him on Uvdah.

All this begs the question: where was Ayelet? As justice minister, Shaked is supposed to be running the show. Did she know about Naveh’s sleazy activities and look the other way? Or was she asleep at the switch? At any rate, the ultimate responsibility rests with her. But I don’t expect any resignations, as the corrupt system looks out for its own.

After examining her Facebook photos, it’s odd that while Ozsinay-Aranya has pictures of herself with numerous Likud party leaders, and a few with her son, there are none with her spouse. This may help explain the rumors of her affair with Naveh.

I have not been able to verify the accuracy of this information. But given what I’ve already reported, it seems likely to be credible.

Thanks to the numerous Israeli sources without whom I could not have reported this important story.