MIDDLE EAST:AN AMERICAN businessman at the centre of a corruption investigation into prime minister Ehud Olmert told a Jerusalem court yesterday that he had given the Israeli leader some $150,000 in cash over a 15-year period and that the money had been used, in part at least, to cover Mr Olmert's personal expenses.
In an eight-hour session in the Jerusalem District Court, Morris Talansky described how he had given Mr Olmert $25,000 to cover a trip to Italy with his wife, another $15,000 to cover a stay at the Regency Hotel in New York, and further sums to upgrade Mr Olmert from business class to first class during trips abroad.
"I only know that he loved expensive cigars. I know he loved pens, watches. I found it strange," Mr Talansky (75) told the court.
Police are investigating whether Mr Olmert illicitly received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mr Talansky when he was mayor of Jerusalem and later minister of trade and industry, starting in the early 1990s and ending before he became prime minister in 2006.
The prime minister has rejected allegations he took bribes, insisting the money was used for campaign purposes and not for personal expenses. While there have been calls across the political spectrum for him to quit, Mr Olmert has said he will only resign if he is indicted.
Mr Talansky's deposition was part of a procedure known as early testimony, which enables prosecutors to take court testimony from a witness in a case where the investigation is still ongoing. Prosecutors feared that Mr Talansky, who lives in the United States, might not return to give evidence.
Mr Talansky said he had no records of how the money was spent and that Mr Olmert had asked to receive the payments in cash, even though he had wanted to write cheuqes. He said he had given envelopes containing cash to Shula Zaken, Mr Olmert's former bureau chief who is also under investigation.
But he insisted he had never received anything in return from the Israeli leader. "I had a very close relationship with him, but . . . the relationship of 15 years was purely of admiration," Mr Talansky said. "I never expected anything personally. I never had any personal benefits from this relationship whatsoever."
But he did relate one instance in which Mr Olmert volunteered to contact three Jewish business moguls to try and get support for a hotel minibar venture he was running. Mr Talansky said the offer did not ultimately help.
Mr Talansky said he had organised fundraising gatherings for Mr Olmert in New York in which envelopes were left on guests' chairs and then transferred to the Israeli leader. The last contribution he gave Mr Olmert, he said, was some $70,000 which Mr Olmert had requested in order to cover his 2003 primary campaign in the Likud party.
Mr Talansky said he had helped Mr Olmert because he admired his ability "to reach out to the American people, the largest and richest community of Jews in the world . . . That's why I overlooked, frankly and honestly, a lot of things. I overlooked them, maybe I shouldn't have."
Mr Olmert's attorneys, who got permission from the court to delay their cross-questioning of Mr Talansky to July, yesterday promised that it would be "dramatic".