Idan Ofer
| Idan Ofer | |
|---|---|
| Image | |
| Born | 2 October 1955 Haifa |
| Died | |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Residence | |
| Occupation | Shipping and energy businessman |
| Known for | Israel Corporation; Quantum Pacific Group; reported client of Black Cube |
| Parents | |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | |
| Sibling(s) | |
| Education | |
| Predecessor | |
| Website | |
Idan Ofer (עידן עופר, born 2 October 1955) is an Israeli businessman in shipping, energy and mining, chairman of the Israel Corporation and principal of the Quantum Pacific Group. He is the son of Sammy Ofer and the brother of Eyal Ofer. His uncle was Yuli Ofer. A 2019 investigation by Channel 12’s Uvda reported that in 2014 he hired Black Cube to gather material on the then finance minister, Yair Lapid, and on officials dealing with tax on natural-gas finds. The firm denied it.[1][2]
Family and posts
He grew up in Haifa. He served in the Israeli Navy as deputy commander of a patrol boat. He took a degree in economics and shipping at the University of Haifa, and a master’s at the London Business School in the 1980s. The Israel Corporation biography says that since 1999 he has held a fellowship there, and that he spent fifteen years in Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States in shipping and offshore oil storage. He has been married four times. His wife from 2009 is Batia Ofer. He has six children.[3]
The same biography lists him as chairman of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services and of Better Place, and as a director of numerous Ofer group companies, with venture-capital and energy projects alongside. Better Place, the electric-car network, failed. He is the majority shareholder of the Israel Corporation, listed in Tel Aviv, and of Kenon Holdings, listed in Tel Aviv and New York. Quantum Pacific is the holding company. He has also held a stake in Atlético Madrid. He sits on the board of the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, now Reichman University.[3]
The gas tax and Black Cube
Uvda reported on 6 June 2019 that he had hired the firm in 2014 to dig up material on Lapid, then finance minister, and on other officials, in order to influence tax policy on natural-gas finds. Lapid had appointed an advisory panel to raise taxes on the profits of the resource companies after the offshore discoveries. The programme said the point was to smear Lapid and the arbitrators. Haaretz reported the same account: personal information on the officials who set the tax, gathered in order to influence an arbitration and to head off a rise that would cut the companies’ profits. Black Cube denied the allegation. Ofer’s own response is not in the reports cited here.[1][2]
The job, if the programme is right, is the Israeli political one, distinct from the Harvey Weinstein contract and from the Romania conviction. Efraim Halevi said in 2019 that Romania had been the only politically motivated client, and that the firm had stopped that work in 2016. A 2014 hire by an Israeli businessman to move a tax decision sits outside that description. The firm’s denial is on the record. So is the broadcast.[4]
Affiliations
Israel Corporation | Quantum Pacific Group | Kenon Holdings | Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya | ZIM Integrated Shipping Services | Better Place | University of Haifa | London Business School | Black Cube
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Israeli tycoon hired Black Cube to smear Yair Lapid in 2014 — report, Times of Israel, 7 June 2019.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Israeli Tycoon Hired Spy Firm to Get Dirt on Finance Minister, Report Says, Haaretz, 4 June 2019.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Idan Ofer, Executive Officers, Israel Corporation, accessed 1 September 2009.
- ↑ Efraim Halevi.