Israel Raids Murdoch High-Tech Company

Israeli tax officials Sunday raided a high-tech firm owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch, confiscating files and computer data to gather evidence in a $150-million tax evasion case.

A statement from Murdoch’s company, News Datacom Research Ltd., rejected the charges as being “without merit.”

Israel Radio said 70 tax agents raided a factory in Haifa and offices in Jerusalem in one of the largest cases of suspected tax fraud in the nation’s history.

The radio said the Murdoch company is accused of developing sophisticated technology that was created locally and smuggled abroad without reporting the transactions to tax authorities.

A warrant issued by Jerusalem Magistrate Court Judge Amnon Cohen stated tax authorities were investigating whether seven individuals and four companies had failed to pay $150 million in taxes, or had assisted others in the crime.

The warrant named the Australian-born Murdoch, who owns a global empire of newspapers, magazines and TV stations, as well as his Israeli company, News Datacom Research Ltd., and parent firm News Datacom Ltd. in London.

The warrant, which authorizes searches and detention, said all were being investigated for “tax transgressions, tax evasion and helping others to evade taxes between the years 1989 and 1996 of an amount of about $150 million.”

Israel TV said the company is suspected of several methods of tax evasion, including selling products developed in Israel abroad and not reporting profit. Accountants were also suspected of listing nonexistent projects in company books and presenting false documents to tax authorities, the report said.

Israeli Tax Authority spokeswoman Sarit Giladi-Dor told Associated Press that the company was owned by Murdoch and had been under investigation for some time for tax evasion.

Giladi-Dor said tax officials had gone to the company’s offices in Jerusalem on Sunday and were examining the records of NDR’s attorneys and accountants.

News Datacom Research Ltd. said in a statement issued in Israel and New York that the company had operated within the law and “filed all required tax returns and paid all applicable taxes.”