Ramle Bank

Bank fraud case worse than suspected

Following the interrogation of suspects involved in the Ramle Mercantile Discount Bank money-laundering scheme, in which 22 people where arrested some two weeks ago, police estimated on Monday that the affair would go down as perhaps the largest white-collar crime in Israel’s history.

Initial estimates put the amount of laundered money over the years somewhere in the ballpark of NIS 100 million, but those numbers have now ballooned to an estimated NIS 1 billion, according to police investigators.

Six more suspects, who allegedly operated fake accounts at the bank, were also arrested Sunday night