Levinson, a Former Bank Hapoalim Board Chairman, an Apparent Suicide

Yaacov Levinson, a former board chairman of the Bank Hapoalim, one of Israel’s three largest banks, was found dead at his Ramat Gan home this morning, an apparent suicide. The 52-year-old Israel-born banker, long active in Labor Party circles, had been under investigation for alleged illegal financial transactions involving overseas companies. He will be buried at Kibbutz Sor’a tomorrow.

David Libai, the family lawyer, said Levinson’s body was discovered by his family on a roof top balcony. Alongside were a pistol and a suicide note. Extracts from the note, which Libai read to reporters, accused unnamed enemies of “drinking my blood, drop-by-drop” for “more than a year.” “My strength is exhausted. I can no longer bear the degradation,” the note said.

Levinson’s activities as head of the Bank Hapoalim had been under investigation internally by the bank’s current management for nearly a year. Their findings were submitted to Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir who passed them on to the police. Only this week, the police set up a special team to continue the investigation. The police said today it would go on despite Levinson’s death.

The charges against Levinson were leaked to the media and were published in the magazine Haolam Haze three months ago. Subsequently, the bank management confirmed that it was conducting an investigation.

CLAIM LEVINSON WAS PUSHED INTO A CORNER

Communications Minister Mordecai Zipori accused the media today of building up the “Levinson affair” before any determination was made of Levinson’s guilt or innocence. “You see how the media have pushed a man whom nobody knows was guilty or innocent into a corner from which he could find no other way out,” Zipori said of the suicide.

Labor MK Uzi Baram, a close personal friend of Levinson, said he was convinced of his innocence and cited the suicide note which accused a “gang” within the bank management and Histadrut of hounding him with baseless allegations. Levinson’s lawyer, Libai, told reporters that he and another attorney had discussed the matter at great length with Levinson and had full reason to believe he was innocent.

Haolam Haze editor Uri Avneri said today that he, too, had met with Levinson several weeks ago to discuss the charges but was not convinced by Levinson’s explanations.

Levinson is generally credited with having built up the Bank Hapoalim from a small institution to one of the country’s top banks, vying for first place with the Bank Leumi. According to press reports, the bank’s investigators were looking into Levinson’s activities as chairman of a company known as U.S.A. Investments, incorporated in the State of Delaware in 1982, which may have caused a conflict of interests with his position at Bank Hapoalim.

ASPECTS OF INVESTIGATION

Another aspect of the investigation was Levinson’s conduct as board chairman of the Bank Hapoalim and his subsequent chairmanship of the Ampal Co., a Bank Hapoalim subsidiary. Since 1977, Bank Hapoalim was said to have sold at least a third of its share of Ampal to another company controlled by a West German trade union’s bank.

In that same year, Bank Hapoalim began selling off a large part of its assets to Ampal. This included 38 percent of the America-Israel Bank which was sold to Ampal for an alleged $1 million less than the true value of its shares.

Within the next five years, Ampal was said to have bought up hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bank Hapoalim holdings in West Germany and in the Cayman Islands, a well known Caribbean tax shelter. The lion’s share of the profits from these transactions went to American businessmen, according to the press accounts. But according to Baram, what started as a political quarrel within the Bank Hapoalim management snowballed into an avalanche of accusations which forced Levinson to take his own life.

LONG INVOLVED IN BANKING OPERATIONS

Levinson was born in Israel in 1932 and was, for a time, a member of Kibbutz Rosh Hanikra. In addition to his Bank Hapoalim position, he was a member of the Bank of Israel advisory board and a co-chairman of the America-Israel Bank. He served as a director of the economic department of the Hevrat Haovdim, a holding company owned by Histadrut, and later as chairman of its executive committee.

Haim Barlev, Secretary General of the Labor Party, stressed today that although Levinson had been a party member, the party was in no way involved with his personal financial affairs. Barlev apparently is trying to head off possible political use of the Levinson affair by the Likud government. Likud Party spokesmen have already demanded an inquiry into a possible connection between Levinson’s alleged offenses and what they claim to be improper practices by the Bank Hapoalim, Histadrut and the Labor Party.

Levinson was once suggested as a possible Finance Minister in the next Labor-led government. The media recalled today the suicide several years ago of Avraham Ofer, a former Housing Minister in a Labor government, who killed himself under the shadow of alleged financial irregularities. Like Levinson, Ofer had been an official of the Hevrat Haovdim.