SCANDALS: Officer! Stop That Man

“The greatest bank robbery ever,” fumed Mordechai Virshubski, a member of Israel’s Knesset. He and many of his countrymen were outraged at the news that Ernest Japhet, the former chairman of Bank Leumi (1985 assets: $22 billion), had negotiated for himself $5 million in severance pay and a $360,000 annual pension. Protesters stormed the bank’s Tel Aviv headquarters. A prime reason for the anger was that Japhet had been forced to step down last year when a government commission criticized his role in the 1983 crash of the value of Israeli bank stocks. As public indignation mounted last week, the bank’s board of directors voted to suspend Japhet’s “golden handshake.” A review of the affair has begun, but few observers expect that Japhet will regain his benefit package.