Who killed Broward hotel owner?
Miami Herald, 7/7/97
By DAVID KIDWELL
Herald Staff Writer
When an assassin's bullet shattered the window of Zvika Yuz's
Mercedes-Benz outside his Fort Lauderdale hotel in May, it came as no shock
to federal investigators who for years have traced Israeli organized crime
ties to South Florida.
Violence, they say, is almost commonplace in Yuz's circle.
Yuz -- a loving father generous to a fault, who borrowed heavily to pay
back friends in a failed investment scheme -- was gunned down outside his
Ramada Sea Club Ocean Resort by a killer wearing a fake beard and carrying a
doll.
The reasons he died may never be fully known. He was surrounded by a
culture of secrecy. But federal authorities are taking seriously an
informant's allegations that his murder was tied to South Florida's Israeli
underworld -- a complex enterprise allegedly orchestrating the movement of
millions in ill-gotten drug proceeds through a myriad of businesses here.
``They have all this drug money they need to clean, and they are looking
for any cash business to funnel it through,'' said the federal informant,
who has already pleaded guilty to his role in the money laundering.
``Jewelry stores, T-shirt shops, restaurants, strip shopping malls, flea
markets, everything. This is just the tip of it.''
Until his death, Yuz was not the focus of federal interest in Israeli
organized crime. But for more than a decade, agents from almost every
federal law enforcement agency -- IRS, INS, SEC, FBI, DEA, Customs, aided by
the Israeli national police -- have kept tabs on some of Yuz's associates
and acquaintances.
The feds have been looking for proof of a kaleidoscope of crimes --
murder, money laundering, fraud, robbery, bribery, drug trafficking, even
the attempted purchase of a Russian nuclear attack submarine.
The investigation has leapfrogged across the world -- from corruption at
the old Hialeah/Opa-locka Flea Market to unsolved murders in Israel to
murder and drug trafficking in New York to money laundering in Miami.
Success has been elusive, at times, for investigators.
``These people don't do business like your typical American
businessmen,'' one law enforcement source said. ``They don't have contracts
and closings. They do business on a handshake and a promise.
``That's one reason there is so much violence. It's also why it is so
difficult to trace.''
``The drug money from Los Angeles gets sent to New York or Miami to be
laundered and the other way around, just to make it harder for us to
trace,'' said another source close to the investigation. ``It's like a big
triangle.''
The targets of these probes say authorities can't prove anything because
there is nothing to prove.
A COMPLEX WEB
Many associates linked to list of top criminals
Frustrated investigators are pursuing many leads in Yuz's death,
including a possible connection to a Yuz associate found dead last month in
Georgia.
Isaac Benarroch, 64, was being sought for questioning in Yuz's murder
because of some threatening letters he sent Yuz four years ago.
Police also suspect that Benarroch shot at a building owned by a friend
of Yuz when he was trying to retrieve $600,000 he had lost in a failed
investment scheme promoted by Yuz.
Benarroch's partner in a Venezuela tennis club, Ricardo La Bergere, was
also shot execution-style in West Palm Beach in February. Neither of the
killings has been solved.
Benarroch was a sworn enemy of Yuz. U.S. authorities are more interested
in Yuz's circle of friends and their associates, many with ties to a famous
list of 11 top Israeli organized crime figures.
The list, leaked to newspapers in 1977 by the Israeli national police,
became a news event of Watergate proportions in Israel. Many of those with
ties to the list, all proclaiming their innocence, left the country and
settled here.
Their business relationships are complex, extend into many facets of
South Florida life and have attracted the close attention of investigators.
Among those linked to the infamous list of 11: Eli Tisona, now in the
federal lockup in Miami awaiting trial on money-laundering charges; his
brother Ezra, convicted for his role in corruption at the flea market;
Shalom Genish, a partner at the market and the target of numerous federal
probes; and Shimon Levy, Yuz's partner in the hotel.
Another is Ilan Kashti, 61, an Israeli jeweler in Miami who has already
pleaded guilty to his role in laundering millions for the Cali drug cartel.
Kashti -- whom enemies call a liar and con artist -- has told The Herald
and federal authorities that Yuz predicted he would be killed on the orders
of ``one of the most dangerous men in the whole east of the United States.''
Kashti has turned government informant in exchange for the possibility of
a reduced sentence and, he says, because his own son has turned against him
in favor of the flash and money of the Israeli syndicate. He says the entire
operation centers on Eli Tisona.
Eli Tisona, 53, who now owns a condominium at Turnberry Isle, made
millions in Israel as head of the country's Wimpy hamburger restaurant
chain. He was on the ``list of 11.''
Tisona also owns a fish farm in Bogota, where he was arrested in April.
He was then brought to Miami to face a 1995 indictment on charges he
masterminded a conspiracy to launder $42 million in New York drug proceeds
through Miami jewelry store accounts. He denies the charges.
Five others were also indicted in the scheme, including Tisona's
daughter, Kineret Tisona Kashti; his son-in-law, Yehuda Kashti; and Yehuda's
father, Ilan Kashti.
Jewelry stores are a favorite way to launder drug money, sources said,
because cash is so easily hidden among huge and flexible profit margins.
The Herald twice interviewed Ilan Kashti at his invitation for a total of
three hours. He continually demanded money in exchange for the interview and
was repeatedly told there would be no payment.
Finally, he broke off communications and would say no more.
Asked if he was frightened for his life, Kashti said, ``No, I'm not
scared. I'm careful.''
Then he added, taking out a holstered weapon, ``They let me keep my
concealed weapons permit.''
Kashti has refused an offer to enter the federal witness protection
program.
WHOM TO BELIEVE?
Government witness says
hotel money was motive
It's Kashti's contention that Yuz was killed on orders from Tisona,
either because of unpaid debts or because Yuz was standing in the way of the
sale of the Ramada Sea Club Ocean Resort. According to Kashti, Tisona wanted
the proceeds to pay legal bills.
``He has all this money, but lawyers won't take drug money,'' Kashti
said. ``They are very sensitive about that. He needed clean money.''
Yuz, who had only a 12.5 percent, $100,000 interest in the hotel, was
also its manager.
``All I know for sure is that he was telling people he was a dead man if
Eli Tisona came back to the U.S,'' Kashti said.
Tisona's attorneys call the allegation ``ridiculous'' and the rantings of
a man trying to save himself.
``I know the feds have made a deal with this guy and they are stuck with
him, but I wouldn't put too much faith in what this Ilan Kashti says,'' said
Joel Kaplan, who represents Tisona's daughter and her husband.
``The evidence will show that it was [Ilan] Kashti who was engaging in
all the criminal activity.''
Tisona did not respond to a written request for an interview in jail. His
trial is set for January.
Kashti is locked in a bitter feud with his son, who he says calls the
shots in Tisona's South Florida crime organization.
Yehuda Kashti, 37, declined to discuss the case with The Herald. But he
recently told an Israeli newspaper he has disowned his father.
``I am ashamed, destroyed, broken,'' said the younger Kashti, who is out
on bond. ``I take responsibility myself for every day that Eli Tisona sits
in prison. It is on my conscience.''
In January, Yehuda Kashti was charged with careless driving after he
crashed the gate at his Turnberry Isle condominium complex. The Jeep he was
driving was registered to another subject of a federal investigation, Ludwig
``Tarzan'' Fainberg.
Fainberg, manager of a Hialeah strip club called Porky's, was arrested
last year on charges he tried to buy a Russian nuclear attack submarine to
smuggle drugs from South America.
WEB OF INTRIGUE
Principal figures had
fingers in many pies
Within days after Yuz was shot -- even before he died -- Tisona
prosecutor Richard Gregorie came to the courtroom where longtime Yuz friend
and attorney Joel Hirschhorn was trying an unrelated case.
``He asked me about this guy Tisona, whether there could be a
connection,'' Hirschhorn said. ``I was able to confirm that [Yuz] did indeed
have an acquaintance with Yehuda Kashti. What it was exactly, I have no
idea.''
Hirschhorn said he established through a mutual friend there were
meetings between Yuz and Yehuda Kashti, but not what was on the agenda.
Yuz ``was hard pressed for money for a long time, I know that,''
Hirschhorn said. ``He was borrowing from whomever he could.''
Hirschhorn referred to Yuz's general partnership in a failed business
that federal authorities have called one of the largest fraud schemes in
Florida history -- Premium Sales Corp.
From 1989 through 1993, Yuz was busy wooing Israeli investors into the
Aventura-based business.
It collapsed under the weight of a federal investigation in 1993, leaving
1,600 investors with losses totaling $300 million. Yuz, who was never
charged, had collected $22 million in investments from influential Israeli
figures who wanted their money back, Hirschhorn said.
One of those investors was Isaac Benarroch. Police suspect he came to
hate Yuz after Premium's collapse. Another investor was Shalom Genish -- a
man who federal investigators believe is far more dangerous.
Yuz and Eli Tisona had a mutual friend in Genish.
Genish, 50, has acknowledged in court papers that his friendship and
business ties to the Tisona family go back more than 20 years. Genish is a
millionaire with a self-admitted gambling problem and a penchant for turning
up in federal probes of Israeli organized crime.
He once owned the largest construction firm in Israel and hobnobbed with
prime ministers, but he was business partners with at least two men on the
infamous list of 11.
Now, Genish is a fugitive from his home country on charges of bribery and
tax evasion. He could not be reached for comment. His attorneys declined to
comment.
``They have nothing,'' Genish said in a 1993 interview with the Israeli
newspaper Yedoith Achronoth. ``They have already investigated me from A to
Z. Shalom Genish is as clean as a baby.''
Genish and Eli Tisona's brother Ezra -- a professional backgammon player
and gambler who was also named on the list -- were the principal partners in
the Hialeah/Opa-locka Flea Market.
Ezra Tisona and another partner named Joseph Lazar were convicted of
stealing $1 million in fill dirt to develop the market. Lazar was charged
with bribing an Opa-locka planning official and took $1,000 to acquire for
Genish what turned out to be a forged U.S. passport. Two other Israelis
connected to the market were charged with money laundering.
In 1990, Lazar was murdered execution-style. Genish remains a suspect in
that unsolved killing, investigators say.
Records show that Genish also has ties to Israeli organized crime in New
York.
About the time Genish was caught in Nassau, Bahamas, with his fake
passport, federal agents in New York were wrapping up their 1990 probe into
a Nassau-based Israeli ring whose members were eventually convicted of money
laundering, drug trafficking and five execution-style murders.
Genish was never charged criminally, but federal prosecutors accused him
of collecting and stashing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the
enterprise. The civil forfeiture case was settled when Genish agreed to
testify against one of the murderers in future cases.
A New York jeweler sued Genish and Yuz, among others, for allegedly
laundering proceeds from one of several New York robberies through one of
Yuz's companies, Carmel Foods, which was set up solely to invest in Premium.
Although Yuz was later dropped from the suit, that case is still pending.
Weeks before his death, Yuz flew to Las Vegas to meet with Genish,
Hirschhorn said. ``I don't know why. I know it was business.''
The connections don't end there.
Yuz's partner in the Ramada, Shimon Levy, has his own ties to the list of
11. Levy lives in a Plantation house built by Genish and spent a year in
Israeli prison in 1981 after he helped hide two top organized crime figures
wanted in a grisly double murder in Israel.
Both of the crime figures, eventually sent to prison for the murders,
were on the list of 11. Levy did not return Herald telephone calls.
``Frankly, all this totally blows me away,'' said Hirschhorn, who
represented Yuz in the Premium bankruptcy case.
``I've known him for years, and this whole drama, this web
of intrigue, was a side of him he kept hidden.'' Copyright 1997 The Miami
Herald
|
