Olmert Scandal’s Long Island Link Revealed
boiled down from Kate Sheehy, New York Post, May 6, 2008
Long Island financier Morris Talansky, philanthropist and political contributor to everyone from Rudy Giuliani to Bill Clinton, self-described CEO of The Global Resources Group, which he runs out of his multi-million-dollar mansion in Woodmere (20, Longfellow Road, Great Neck, Long Island, according to HuffPost’s database, but this must be out of date – RB), allegedly passed money to Olmert while the politician was mayor of Jerusalem in the ’90s. In a highly unusual move, Israeli authorities have barred the country’s media from publishing Talansky’s name, saying it could hamper their investigation. Israeli media have referred only to the involvement of an “American businessman.” Talansky is apparently set to sing to Israeli authorities about his alleged role in the scheme. Sources said, “It looks like they have a state witness in Talansky.” He is apparently in Jerusalem, where he has an apartment, and is preparing to head to a closed-door court hearing as early as today. Sources said that the 75-year-old was earlier questioned about the alleged scheme, almost immediately after arriving in the country for Passover, and implicated Olmert. It was unclear what the alleged payments to Olmert were for, but they involved hefty amounts of cash. Apparently, Talansky repeatedly appears, sometimes under the nickname “the laundryman,” in the logs of financial dealings kept by Olmert’s long-time aide, Shula Zakan.
