Drug offenses and sex tapes: New allegations against Jerusalem soccer club owner

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Israel extended the detention of the owner of one of the nation’s top soccer teams by eight days on Wednesday following the signing of a state witness agreement after he was arrested last week on suspicion of fraud and sexual offenses.

According to an investigative report on Channel 13, Moshe Hogeg allegedly tried to force himself on a model in her hotel room in an incident that was subsequently covered up with the aid of modeling agent Omri Yaari, the owner of the ITM modeling agency.

The investigation led to suspicion that the Beitar Jerusalem owner, whose team has a fanbase notorious for its anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry, had committed multiple sexual offenses. A police source stated that it is believed that the publication of the suspicions against him may cause more victims to come forward. Hogeg detention was remanded by the Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court.

The offenses allegedly took place at events hosted by Hogeg, which minors had attended.

Also on Wednesday, Hebrew news site Ynet reported that Hogeg allegedly secretly filmed multiple incidents of drug use and sexual relations with different women at a $15,000-a-month three-story secret apartment that he rented for the use of himself and his friends in the upscale Park Tzameret neighborhood in Tel Aviv.

Ynet reported that police currently have dozens of such videos recorded and are currently trying to contact all the women who were filmed without their consent.

The extended investigation included alleged cryptocurrency fraud involving hundreds of millions of shekels as a number of other suspects were also arrested, most of them past or present club partners or employees.


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They are suspected of theft, money laundering and other crimes. Each is suspected of pocketing tens of millions of shekels and conspiring to mislead potential investors on a number of projects involving cryptocurrency.

The suspects knew these projects would never actually materialize, according to a police official. Investigators from the national fraud unit raided the Beitar Jerusalem‘s offices last week.

Among the possibilities being investigated is that the illicitly obtained funds were used by the club.

“We are confident that at the end of the investigation the innocence of our client will be proven and therefore in order to allow the police to investigate the truth we agreed to extend [his] detention. Hogeg is fully cooperating with his interrogators,” his attorneys stated on Wednesday.

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