Jerusalem

An official at the Weizmann Institute of Science has confessed to pocketing US$5 million from one of the institute's fund-raising organizations in Europe.

Israeli police say that some of the money, taken from the Zurich-based European Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science, was channelled through the GSI, a national research institute in Darmstadt, Germany.

Out of pocket: the Weizmann Institute called in the police to search for its missing millions. Credit: WEIZMANN INSTITUTE

The Weizmann Institute in Rehovot is Israel's leading multidisciplinary research institute. It called in the police to investigate the activities of its finance division chief, Michael Netzer, in July. An employee at Bank Leumi in Zurich, where the European committee has an account, had notified the bank's branch in Rehovot of suspicious financial transactions.

According to a police spokesman, Netzer said that he invested $1.5 million of the money in the stock market and used most of the rest to fund a gambling addiction. Netzer, whom the police have decided not to detain because of ill health, claims that he also used money to pay for medical procedures he needed.

The fund-raising European committee is one of several 'friends of' organizations that raise money for the Weizmann Institute around the world. Government funding covers only part of the institute's annual outlay, and much of the remainder comes from funds raised overseas.

The European committee also holds an account in the Rehovot branch of Bank Leumi, where Netzer was one of four people with signing authority.

A subsequent audit of the Rehovot account revealed that Netzer deposited some of the money, which he claimed was 'private', into the personal account of the GSI's administrative director, who in turn made cash payments to Netzer. The administrative director was not available for comment, but Walter Henning, the scientific director of the GSI, says he sees no reason to conduct an investigation at the institute.

Little information is emerging from the Weizmann Institute itself. Yivsam Azgad, an institute spokesman, has confirmed that the institute started the police investigation at the request of the European committee, which is legally an independent body.

Azgad states only that “a small part of the committee's funds were transferred to unidentified accounts” and that “a significant portion of these funds have already been returned”. He added that the institute's investigation of the matter revealed “further irregularities”, in the wake of which Netzer resigned from his post.