U.S. Team Goes to Israel to Discuss Bribe Scandal with Jailed Ex-officer

A team of American investigators has arrived in Israel to question a former senior Israeli air force officer in connection with a bribery scandal involving U.S. defense contractors.

Col. Rami Dotan, former head of the Israeli air force’s equipment division and at one time head of the air force’s purchasing mission in the United States, is currently serving a 13-year prison sentence for accepting some $12 million in bribes from U.S. aircraft manufacturers.

Other officers who worked with him are also serving various prison terms for their participation in the scam. Some of them were posted as Israeli air force liaison officers in some of the top aircraft and parts suppliers in the United States.

The American team is made of representatives of the FBI, the Justice and Defense departments, congressional committees and corporations whose agents allegedly offered the bribes.

In the questioning, which was to begin this week, the Americans aim to find out what Dotan and his accomplices did with the money and how they managed to launder such large sums and transfer them out of the country.

Among the corporations involved was General Electric, which admitted to its complicity and reportedly paid the U.S. government $69 million to settle the case.

The U.S. authorities asked to question Dotan as his conviction was announced in 1990, but Israel refused, saying it feared such an interrogation might lead to the disclosure of details harmful to Israel’s security.

But under heavy pressure, Israel has finally agreed to an indirect interrogation, in the presence of Israeli military censors.