The troubles of Ernst Japhet, former Board chairman of Bank Leumi, were compounded last week when a Tel Aviv district court seized all his assets in Israel.
The court acted on the petition of his former wife, Ella Japhet, to whom he was married for 35 years and who is the mother of his five children. But the assets, put at some $2 million, are much less than the former wife expected. She is trying to find out if Japhet has additional assets overseas.
She also asked the income tax authorities to investigate whether he concealed assets from her at the time of their divorce settlement. As the complainant, she originally petitioned the court to award her half of the $4.5 million severance payment awarded Japhet by the Bank Leumi directors when he stepped down last spring. She also asked for half of his $30,000-a-month pension.
Two weeks ago the bank’s Board resigned after expressing “horror” over the excessive compensation to Japhet who was forced to resign as a consequence of the 1983 bank shares scandal.
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