Lowy 'safe' in Olmert case
* Matti Friedman
* From: The Australian <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/>
* April 28, 2007 12:00AM
* AUSTRALIAN billionaire and Westfield Group chairman Frank Lowy says he
is confident he will be cleared of any improper behaviour after being
interviewed by Israeli police over a corruption scandal involving Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert. *
The Westfield co-founder will be questioned by Israeli fraud squad
officers about suspicions that before becoming prime minister, Mr Olmert
had tried to help Mr Lowy in a bank sale.
Officers would visit Australia next week to conduct the interview,
Israeli police said.
The investigation concerns Mr Olmert's role as finance minister in the
Government's 2005 sale of a controlling interest in Bank Leumi.
Police are investigating whether Mr Olmert intervened - unsuccessfully -
in the sale to help two associates, Mr Lowy and US billionaire Daniel
Abraham.
Westfield last week told Australian Jewish News: "Mr Lowy categorically
rejects any suggestion that he or anyone acting on his behalf behaved
improperly."
Australian Jewish News said this week it understood Mr Lowy was being
interviewed as a witness and not as a suspect and that he has long made
clear his willingness to co-operate.
Mr Lowy is a Holocaust survivor who fought in the Jewish underground
before joining his family in Australia in 1951.
Last year he was ranked Australia's second-richest person, with a
fortune estimated at more than $5 billion.
Mr Olmert is also facing several allegations involving past real estate
deals.
Israel's government watchdog issued a lengthy report on Wednesday
charging that Mr Olmert used his influence to steer a government grant
to a colleague while he was trade minister in 2001 and recommended
opening a criminal case.
Mr Olmert has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing in all the cases.
Several other officials from his centrist Kadima party have also faced
scandal. Former justice minister Haim Ramon lost his job and was
convicted of an indecent act for forcibly kissing a female soldier.
Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson is under investigation in an
embezzlement case and has suspended himself from office, while Mr
Olmert's long-time office manager was placed under house arrest on
suspicions she helped arrange government jobs in return for tax breaks.
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