After the trustee claimed that Vered Kalesh Ben-Ari, the ex-wife of the suspect in the NIS 600 million fraud, received money and property from investors’ money, the court approved the issuance of an order preventing Mored from carrying out operations on her assets. The respondent if it turns out that there is a reason for this ”
Judge Hagai Brenner of the Tel Aviv District Court granted (Tuesday) a request filed by the trustee for the assets of Mike Ben-Ari, who is suspected of investor fraud, and ordered a restraining order regarding the assets of the suspect’s ex-wife, Vered Kalesh Ben-Ari. The meaning of the order is that you will not be able to carry out any activity or transfer in its assets.
The judge ruled that “in order to allow the trustee to trace the full property of Vered Kalesh Ben Ari and the manner in which it came into her possession, there is also room to order the respondent (Vered – LD) to provide the trustee with a detailed affidavit regarding all its assets, including their sources of funding. ”
Vered has been Ben-Ari’s ex-wife since 2008. Ben-Ari is suspected of NIS 550 million in investor fraud that was allegedly committed against more than 700 investors who lost their investment money. Ben-Ari has a criminal proceeding and a bankruptcy proceeding is being conducted against him at the civil level, in the framework of which a trustee for his assets was appointed.
Ben-Ari’s ex-wife: “I am a victim”
The court’s decision was given following a request filed by the trustee for Ben Ari’s assets, Adv. Lior Dagan, who claimed that according to initial findings formulated by Mike Ben Ari, he transferred large sums to his ex-wife Vered over the years, which he estimates total NIS 25 million.
Vered, on the other hand, claims, through attorneys Amit Harhas and Vigal Kalds, that she herself is one of the victims of Mike Ben-Ari. , Without being at all aware that the debtor has raised the funds and does not use them for the purpose for which they were given to him.
Furthermore, Vered claimed that at the request of Mike Ben-Ari, she even took out loans and mortgaged her apartment and the loan money was transferred to Mike. Her consent to do so testifies to her claim of good faith, since if she had known that we were dealing with a crook, she would not have mortgaged her house for the purpose of transferring money to Mike Ben-Ari.
Judge Brenner ruled that “in view of the fact that these are only preliminary findings and the investigation is still ongoing, it is not possible to determine whether the respondent (Vered – LD) is in fact another victim of many of the debtor’s victims, or whether it was someone who cooperated in property smuggling. .
“Similarly, it is not yet possible to outright rule out the possibility in principle that even someone who received money in good faith from the debtor, without knowing that the money he receives is embezzlement from other debtors of the debtor, may be required to return it to the proceedings.” Allow the trustee an additional reasonable period of time to formulate more well-founded conclusions and findings. ”
Finally, the judge ruled that “as for the balance of convenience, it is also in favor of the trustee, because the respondent did not bother to explain in an affidavit why the sale of the apartment in Herzliya is indeed necessary for her livelihood. The respondent also did not explain what it has been since And how she finances the continuation of her residence in the luxury apartment in Ramat Aviv.
“On the other hand, there is a real concern that without a restraining order on the assets, it will be difficult for the trustee to collect money from the respondent in the future, if it later becomes clear that there is a reason to impose a monetary charge on it.”
Vered Kalesh Ben-Ari chose not to comment on the news.