The state sent him to collect debts, and the money stayed with him: lawyer David Levi, the Tax Authority's receiver
For ten years lawyer David Levi represented the Israel Tax Authority in debt-enforcement files. According to the sentencing decision, about 16 million shekels from the sale of debtors' assets in 49 files never reached the state. He was sentenced to nine years in prison, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, and the Israel Bar expelled him.
When someone does not pay a debt to the Tax Authority, the file can end up at the Enforcement and Collection Authority. Sometimes a receiver is appointed: a lawyer whose job is to sell the debtor's apartment or property, hold the money in trust and pass it on to the file and to the creditor, in this case the state.
From 2001 to 2011 that job was done by lawyer David Levi, a private lawyer who represented the Tax Authority in dozens of files. According to the sentencing decision, he received 15,571,688 shekels from the sale of debtors' assets and, instead of transferring the money to the enforcement file and to the Tax Authority, took it for himself by fraud and theft.
The prosecutor told the court the affair had no precedent in Israel: theft from 49 enforcement files over ten years. In December 2021 Levi was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Sources: Sentencing decision, criminal case 42814-10-14, Central District Court, 23.12.2021 · Criminal Appeal 798/22 Levi v. State of Israel, Supreme Court, 2.7.2023
The state's receiver
According to the sentencing decision and the appeal judgment, Levi represented the Tax Authority in enforcement files as counsel for the creditor, and in many files he was appointed receiver under the Enforcement Law, to collect taxpayers' debts.
His agreement with the Tax Authority required him to transfer the proceeds, minus his fee, within two days of completing the work in a file. According to the appeal judgment, he completed the files and sold the assets, but the money went to his private accounts.
Sources: Sentencing decision, criminal case 42814-10-14, Central District Court, 23.12.2021 · Criminal Appeal 798/22 Levi v. State of Israel, Supreme Court, 2.7.2023
49 files, about 16 million shekels
On the first count Levi was convicted of multiple offences of theft by an authorised person. The amount set by the court: 15,571,688 shekels, received from the sale of debtors' assets while he acted as receiver.
According to the appeal judgment, bank orders showed that between 2003 and 2012 about 15 million shekels were moved from the trust accounts to his office account.
Sources: Sentencing decision, criminal case 42814-10-14, Central District Court, 23.12.2021 · Criminal Appeal 798/22 Levi v. State of Israel, Supreme Court, 2.7.2023
Not only the state
Three further counts concerned private people's money. In 2011 and 2012, as administrator of an estate, Levi sold an apartment in Holon at the request of the deceased's daughter and kept 390,000 shekels of the remaining payments. The court wrote that he had exploited his position against a particularly vulnerable victim.
In the same period, as administrator of another estate, he sold an apartment in Eilat and did not pass 106,083 shekels to the heirs. In 2007, representing an owner in the sale of a property, he took 395,000 shekels of guarantee money for himself.
On the fifth count he was convicted of income tax offences: omitting income totalling 8,614,104 shekels from his returns.
Sources: Sentencing decision, criminal case 42814-10-14, Central District Court, 23.12.2021
How it came to light
According to the appeal judgment, it was the enforcement registrars who referred his case for examination by the Enforcement and Collection Authority. One registrar ordered him to file financial reports with supporting documents in dozens of asset-sale files. He did not show documents for the money he held, and refused to provide bank records.
That led to an investigation, which began covertly. According to the report in Kipa, the case was investigated by the Lahav 433 economic crime unit, the Tel Aviv district fraud squad, the Eilat police and the Tax Authority's Tel Aviv investigations office. The indictment was filed on 27 October 2014.
Sources: Criminal Appeal 798/22 Levi v. State of Israel, Supreme Court, 2.7.2023 · Kipa, 23.12.2021
Conviction and sentence
On 29 June 2021, after hearing evidence, the Central District Court in Lod convicted him on all five counts: multiple offences of theft by an authorised person, 11 offences of omitting income from a return under the Income Tax Ordinance, and multiple offences of fraud, deceit or trickery under the Ordinance.
In the sentencing decision Judge Dana Marshak Marom wrote that Levi acted "out of greed" and exploited "the core of his professional practice" and the trust placed in him. The court also noted that he did not take responsibility for his actions.
On 23 December 2021 he was sentenced to nine years in prison, 12 months suspended, a fine of 300,000 shekels and compensation to two private victims of 258,000 and 106,083 shekels.
One detail from the sentencing decision: Levi submitted to the court a book he had written, published in 2005. Its title: "Businesses Blooming in the Air".
Sources: Sentencing decision, criminal case 42814-10-14, Central District Court, 23.12.2021 · Kipa, 23.12.2021
The appeal: a "civil dispute" and legal fees
In the Supreme Court Levi argued, among other things, that he had not been fit to stand trial, and that this was a civil dispute with the tax authorities: in his view the money was his fee, or an advance on his fee, and the time to transfer it had not yet come.
Justice Yitzhak Amit wrote that this claim had "no basis at all" and contradicted the evidence. On 2 July 2023 Justices Amit, Barak-Erez and Mintz rejected the appeal in full. Levi did not appeal the sentence itself.
Sources: Criminal Appeal 798/22 Levi v. State of Israel, Supreme Court, 2.7.2023
The Israel Bar: expulsion
After the conviction, while he was under interim suspension, his case came before the Tel Aviv District Disciplinary Tribunal of the Israel Bar (case 123/23). On 7 December 2023 the tribunal found that the offences were committed "in direct connection with the core of the profession" and involved moral turpitude.
The sanction: expulsion from the Bar and a fine of 25,000 shekels. On the Bar's list of suspended and expelled lawyers, as of 26 October 2026, he appears under licence number 11223 as expelled.
Sources: Disciplinary case 123/23, Tel Aviv District Disciplinary Tribunal, 7.12.2023 (lawbuzz) · List of suspended and expelled lawyers, Israel Bar
How to check a lawyer
Anyone who deposits money in trust with a lawyer can check the lawyer's licence in the Israel Bar's register, and search the index of suspended lawyers on this site for disciplinary decisions. No record is not a guarantee, and a record is not proof of guilt in another matter.
This article and its translations were prepared with AI assistance, based on the documents listed in the source map.