Israeli business tycoon sentenced to 2 years in jail for share fraud

Israeli business tycoon Nochi Dankner was sentenced on Monday to two years in prison after he was found guilty of manipulating share prices.

Dankner is the former chairman and controlling shareholder of IDB Holding Corporation, once Israel's largest conglomerate. The pyramid-like group had holdings in companies ranging from telecoms and supermarkets to insurance.

A statement by the Tel Aviv District Court said that Dankner, who was found guilty of fraudulently influencing the prices of IDB's stocks, was sentenced to 24 months in prison.

The court also placed Dankner under a 12-month probation, and fined him 800,000 shekels (about 209,000 U.S. dollars.)

Dankner's business partner, Itay Strum, was sentenced to 12 months in prison and fined 500,000 shekels.

"The offenses were committed by the most influential person in the Israeli economy at that time," Judge Khaled Kabub wrote in the verdict. Kabub said that Dankner "breached the public trust" in order to secure his control over the shares of IDB.

In July, the Tel Aviv District Court found Dankner and Strum guilty of securities manipulations committed in 2012. According to their conviction, they improperly influenced IDB's share price a few days before a scheduled issuance of securities.

The IDB collapsed in the wake of police investigations and the trial.

Israeli media expected that Dankner would appeal with the Supreme Court to mitigate his punishment.

Dankner's father, Yitzhak Dankner, told the Hebrew-language TV news Channel 2 that the punishment was "disproportionate," adding that his son was one of the country's greatest philanthropists and "contributed a great deal to the Israeli society." Endit