Michael Tzur, former managing director of the Israel Corporation and former chairman of the Zim Lines, Israel’s national shipping company, was placed under arrest here yesterday in connection with alleged violations of foreign currency regulations; disloyalty and suspected fraud. The 52-year-old business executive and former civil servant was informed that he was under arrest after he was summoned to police headquarters for further questioning in connection with the allegations against him.
The order to take Tzur into custody was telephoned from police headquarters in Jerusalem where an investigation of his activities is also under way. According to Israeli law, police may detain a suspect for 48 hours after which he must be remanded before a magistrate.
Tzur was forced to resign from the Israel Corp. and the Zim Lines last year after it was charged that he had invested large sums of money belonging to those firms in enterprises headed by his friend and business associate financier Tibor Rosenbaum. The temporary closure of Rosenbaum’s International Credit Bank in Geneva and the failure of alleged “dummy” corporations he set up in Vaduz, Lichtenstein, an international tax haven, sparked a financial scandal here.
Tzur was accused of investing Israel Corp. money, ear-marked for Israel’s capital development, in Rosenbaum enterprises without the knowledge or consent of his superiors. He is also alleged to have invested large sums of money from Zim and from the Haifa Refineries Ltd. of which he was a board member, in Rosenbaum’s failed enterprises, State Attorney Meir Shamgar recommended last November that the police investigate Tzur’s transactions.
Tzur, who was born in Germany, came to Palestine in 1934 and received a law degree from Tel Aviv University, held various high posts in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Finance Ministry from 1951-58. He served as director general of the Ministry of Commerce until 1965 when he was named by the government to the chairmanship of the Zim Board of Directors.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
