Olmert corruption case spreads to US

Source: AFP, 07-07-2008

OCCUPIED 'JERUSALEM' (AL-QUDS): 'Israeli' police have sent two senior investigators to the US to expand a corruption probe linked to embattled Premier Ehud Olmert, a spokesman said Sunday.

"Two senior officials from the police's fraud department, Lior Rice and Tzahi Habekin, are in the US for two-and-a-half weeks to continue the corruption investigation involving ... Olmert," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

He added that the two detectives would seek to obtain documents from several US banks and companies related to a corruption investigation into financial contributions given to Olmert before he became premier. The corruption probe, the most serious of four pending investigations involving the increasingly unpopular premier, is focused on donations given to Olmert by the Jewish-American financier Morris Talansky.