Bankers convicted in Israel scandal

(First Edition)

A Jerusalem court found the former heads of Israel's top four banks guilty of fraud in a 1983 bank-shares scandal that shook the entire country and cost the government dollars 9bn (pounds 6.2bn), Reuter reports from Jerusalem. The verdict was a climax to Israel's biggest financial scandal, ending legal proceedings that lasted more than two years and dragged some of the best-known names in Israel's financial community through the mud. The banks themselves - Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, United Mizrahi Bank and Israel Discount Bank - were convicted as well as the officials.