Police grill Shas MK for 2nd time on suspicion of funneling taxpayer funds to party paper

Case of Haim Biton, who allegedly used public funds to pay employees’ salaries while heading Shas school network, will be sent soon to prosecutors to decide on possible indictment

By Charlie Summers

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Today, 12:24 pm

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Shas lawmaker Haim Biton was interrogated by police on Sunday for the second time on suspicion of misusing public funds to finance the ultra-Orthodox party’s mouthpiece newspaper, HaDerech.

The politician was questioned over his activities as former head of Shas’s Ma’ayan Hachinuch Hatorani school network from 2017 to 2021, Hebrew media reported, after he allegedly exploited his position to divert public education funds to prop up the paper’s children’s supplement.

It was the second time Biton has been interrogated in the affair. He was questioned in March last year on suspicion of fraud, breach of trust, falsification of corporate documents and money laundering for his role in the alleged embezzlement. Four additional suspects were also questioned at the time.

The probe into Biton began in October 2024, when Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara gave officers the go-ahead to begin investigating the lawmaker and others associated with the Shas party mouthpiece, following appeals by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, an anti-corruption advocacy group.

Hebrew media reported Monday that the police’s Lahav 433 fraud investigations unit is preparing to transfer the case to the State Attorney’s Office soon for a decision on whether to file an indictment.

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Police did not immediately comment on Biton’s Sunday questioning.

State funding meant to go to Shas’s Ma’ayan Hachinuch Hatorani school network was allegedly funneled to HaDerech via various backdoor methods from 2018 to 2019, during Biton’s tenure as head of the network.

The newspaper allegedly used this taxpayer money to pay editorial and journalistic salaries.

Sam Sokol contributed to this report.

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