Jerusalem District Police and National Insurance Investigators arrested 8 suspects in East Jerusalem tonight on suspicion of falsifying medical documents and defrauding the health system in order to obtain and trade narcotic drugs, as well as to fraudulently receive benefits from the National Insurance Institute
From information received by the Investigations and Intelligence Division of the National Insurance Institute, suspicion arose that dozens of East Jerusalem residents are falsifying medical documents from hospitals in Jerusalem.
The information was transferred to the Crime Fighting Unit (CFU) of the Zion Region in the Jerusalem District, which, in cooperation with investigators and intelligence at the National Insurance Institute, conducted an undercover investigation in recent months on suspicion of fraud and deceit against the health system and the National Insurance, and succeeded in exposing a network that operated systematically with the aim of extorting millions of shekels from the Treasury.
The findings of the undercover investigation revealed that, according to the suspicion, those involved forged medical documents containing their personal details, which misrepresented that they were patients in oncology departments at various hospitals, and as mental health patients, which they allegedly submitted to the National Insurance, and in this way benefited from pension payments estimated at thousands of shekels per month, which they pocketed.
The scope of the fraud amounts to approximately 4 million shekels.
The investigation also revealed that the suspects cynically and blatantly exploited the public health system, using those forged documents, which they presented to medical officials, and for which they fraudulently received prescriptions for narcotic drugs intended to alleviate the suffering of extremely seriously ill patients, when the suspicion is that they were trafficking in these drugs.
Tonight, as the investigation moved to the open phase, Zion Region police and Border Guard soldiers, together with National Insurance investigators, raided the suspects' homes in East Jerusalem, seized evidence and documents linking them to the crimes, and brought them for questioning at the Zion Regional Police Headquarters, on suspicion of crimes of receiving something by fraud, and forging documents under aggravated circumstances.
Zion Region Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Shlomi Bachar: "This is an unprecedented moral low. The suspects are suspected of taking advantage of the distress of patients in difficult situations and struggling with mental health for the purpose of generating personal profit. While normal citizens are fighting for their health and waiting for the assistance they are entitled to, the suspects acted cynically and fraudulently to loot the public Treasure while posing as terminally ill patients. The Zion Region Crime Suppression Unit will continue to act resolutely, together with our partners at the National Insurance Institute, against anyone who attempts to defraud the health system and steal public funds at the expense of the weakest."
Amir Shahrabani, Director of the Investigations Division at the National Insurance Institute: "We have said in the past and we will emphasize it again today - National Insurance benefits are intended for eligible Israeli residents, and only for them. Anyone who thinks they can defraud the system - will end up getting caught and returning to the state Treasury the money they fraudulently took - down to the last shekel. The fact that people forge medical documents to pose as cancer patients in order to trade in medicines and fraudulently receive benefits is a morally and ethically despicable act, and the National Insurance, in cooperation with the Israel Police, will not tolerate this."
Michaela Cohen - National Insurance Institute Spokesperson