JERUSALEM, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Israel's top court sentenced on Wednesday the country's former most powerful tycoon to three years in prison for security fraud.
A panel of three Supreme Court judges decided to reject Nochi Dankner's appeal against his conviction for manipulating the stocks of the IDB group.
Dankner was once the main shareholder of the group.
Dankner was originally meted out a two-year prison term by a district court in 2017.
"The case before us is of one of the most severe and unusual securities scams uncovered in recent years, within the most prominent and influential company of the time," the judges wrote in their decision, a copy of which was sent to Xinhua.
"Dankner and (his colleague Itay) Strum executed a vast fraud, in which millions were invested in fraudulent stock transactions in an attempt to influence and stabilize the IDB share price," they said.
Dankner, 63, will start serving his prison term on Oct. 2, the court said.
His pyramid-like company included a major supermarket chain, a large cellular company, an internet company, a cement monopoly company, a large insurance company, and one of Israel's main newspapers.
Dankner's business began to collapse in the 2007 global financial crisis.
