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| 23.01.200708:06 (GMT) | Russian-Israeli billionaire Arkadi Gaydamak is not the subject of any criminal investigation, an Israel Police official told The Jerusalem Post. The surprising revelation comes nearly eight months after investigators recommended that Gaydamak be charged in connection with his alleged laundering of some $50 million through a Tel Aviv branch of Bank Hapoalim. Gaydamak went on the offensive during the alleged money laundering investigation by publicly accusing Police Investigations and Intelligence chief Yohanan Danino of conducting a personal crusade against him. The revelation that Gaydamak is "clean" seems counter-intuitive to public perceptions of the widely popular, yet shady, businessman. In December 2000, Gaydamak fled France, where he was wanted for illegal gun running, tax evasion, money laundering and corruption allegations. French authorities had alleged that Gaydamak - who holds Russian, Canadian, Angolan and Israeli passports - was hiding behind Israel's financial privileges for immigrants to protect his assets and avoid prosecution. For his part, Gaydamak who has never been convicted of a crime has maintained that he amassed his fortune on the Russian stock market. Among other business deals, he teamed up with former Mossad secret service officials Danny Yatom and Avi Dagan to form a private military company called the Strategic Consulting Group. Despite having little grasp of Hebrew, Gaydamak has succeeded in grabbing headlines, garnering both public praise and the disdain of government officials after two highly publicized and politicized displays of his massive wealth: first building a beach camp for thousands of refugees from the north during the summer's fighting with Hizbullah, and more recently when he footed the bill to evacuate 3,000 residents of the Kassam rocket afflicted town of Sderot for a weekend getaway in Eilat. He said Prime Minister feared that Gaydamak would take up to 40 Knesset seats from him if he were to run for public Office. In that interview with Ynet in November, Gaydamak said he had not ruled out the possibility that Priem Minister Yehud Olmert was behind the police investigation against him, and he alleged Olmert, Police Investigations and Intelligence chief Danino, and Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz were working together to tarnish his public image.
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