JERUSALEM — An Israeli billionaire at the center of a recent scandal involving trade with Iran died Friday in Tel Aviv. He was 89.
Shipping magnate and philanthropist Sammy Ofer was listed last year by Forbes magazine as Israel’s richest person and No. 109 in the world.
Ofer’s family released a statement saying he died Friday morning at his Tel Aviv home after a long illness. A funeral will be held Sunday in Tel Aviv, a family spokesman said.
Ofer’s name had been in the news since the U.S. government sanctioned his company, Ofer Brothers Group, last month for selling an oil tanker to Iran’s national shipping company through a Singapore subsidiary. The sale violated U.S. trade restrictions on Iran.
That embarrassed the Ofer family and the Israeli government, which has long been a vocal proponent of tighter sanctions on Iran. Israel considers Iran’s nuclear program to be an existential threat.
Ofer died as calls grew in Israel for an investigation into the affair.
Along with his brother, Yuli, Sammy Ofer owned Zim Integrated Shipping Services, one of the world’s biggest container shipping companies. The family controls The Israel Corp., with vast assets in shipping, chemicals, energy and transportation, and also has holdings in real estate and banking.
The Ofer brothers did not comment publicly on the U.S. charge. A spokesman said the $8.5 million deal, small for the massive conglomerate, was conducted unwittingly with an Iranian shell company. Nonetheless, the company said it was embarrassed.
"I think this is very serious. We preach to the world to impose sanctions on Iran, and it turns out that an Israeli company might be involved in dealing with them," Nachman Shai, a lawmaker with the opposition Kadima Party, said this week after the charges were made public.
Media reports suggested that the Ofers’ ties with Iran might have been authorized by the government, and there were broad hints that their activities were linked in some way to Israeli intelligence operations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office denied that the government had authorized the company’s dealings. In a statement released after Ofer’s death, Netanyahu praised his contributions to Israeli society. He did not refer to the tanker affair.
The family’s statement Friday made no mention of the scandal.
Ofer, born in Romania in 1922, moved two years later to what was then the British Mandate territory of Palestine, according to a brief biography provided by the family. He served on a Royal Navy minesweeper in World War II and later as an officer in the Israeli navy.
In 2008, Ofer donated 20 million pounds ($33 million) to fund a new wing at Britain’s National Maritime Museum, which observers said was the largest private donation ever made to a British cultural institution. He was subsequently awarded an honorary knighthood.
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