10 months imprisonment for actor and real estate entrepreneur Dan Turgeman, convicted of tax offenses
The Tel Aviv District Court has increased the sentence of actor and real estate entrepreneur Dan Turgeman, convicted of tax offenses, from 9 months of community service to 10 months of actual imprisonment. The fine was reduced from 100,000 shekels to 50,000 shekels. Turgeman failed to report income of 3.7 million shekels from real estate ventures and apartment rentals and evaded payment of approximately 135,000 shekels in capital gains tax.
The Tel Aviv District Court accepted the prosecution's appeal against the leniency of the sentence of actor and real estate entrepreneur Dan Turgeman, and increased his punishment from 9 months of community service to 10 months of actual imprisonment. The fine imposed on him was halved, from 100,000 shekels to 50,000 shekels. Turgeman was convicted under a plea deal for a series of tax offenses committed between 2008 and 2017. According to the indictment, he failed to report to the tax authority income of 3.7 million shekels from real estate ventures and apartment rentals, and evaded payment of approximately 135,000 shekels in capital gains tax. A property substantially owned by him was registered in the name of his ex-wife, actress Anat Atzmon, and upon its sale, no capital gains tax was paid. Turgeman received the full purchase amount of 1.72 million shekels in 2011 but avoided paying tax due to the registration under Atzmon. The Magistrate's Court set a sentencing range of 12 to 28 months of actual imprisonment but deviated from it and imposed 9 months of community service, citing the passage of time. The panel of judges in the District Court - Shay Yaniv, Yossi Tupf, and Dana Amir - accepted the state's appeal regarding the imprisonment component, emphasizing that tax offenses committed with intent to evade require actual imprisonment, and that the passage of time does not justify deviation from this. The judges noted that even the current sentence does not exhaust the full extent of the law.