Former finance minister Moshe Kahlon is convicted Sunday in a plea bargain on securities-reporting offenses related to his time as chairman of the Unet Credit company.

According to the indictment filed with the Tel Aviv District Court, Kahlon was informed of “substantive irregularities” in Unet’s Nazareth branch in 2022 but “did not act to fully inform the company’s board of directors of all the information as required by the securities law,” the State Attorney’s Office announced.

The problems at the Nazareth branch, where a substantial part of Unet’s operations were carried out, were presented to the board five months after Kahlon had been made aware of them, and the company then announced the issue to the public.

Shortly after Kahlon disclosed the irregularities to the board, he resigned from his position at Unet Credit.

Both the defense and the prosecution will jointly petition for a suspended sentence, a fine of NIS 180,000 ($64,000), and a restriction on being able to serve as an officer in a public company for 18 months.

Kahlon served as a Likud member of Knesset and minister for 10 years, and was credited with spearheading a popular program that deregulated the cellphone industry. He later formed the Kulanu party under his leadership and served as finance minister from 2015 to 2020. The plea deal does not prevent him from returning to politics.

Kahlon’s name has been linked in recent days to the formation of a new........

© The Times of Israel