Ex-Israel PM Olmert found guilty in corruption retrial

A Jerusalem court found former Israeli premier Ehud Olmert guilty of corruption March 30 in a retrial of allegations he received envelopes of cash from a US businessman, the verdict read.
      
It was the latest legal blow in a humiliating fall from grace for the debonair man who took over as prime minister in 2006 after his mentor and predecessor Ariel Sharon lapsed into a coma from which he never recovered.
      
"We find the defendant guilty of fraud and a breach of trust," the Jerusalem district court verdict read, "and of the felony of fraud under aggravated circumstances."       

Sentencing for the 69-year-old, who already faces a six-year prison sentence in a separate bribery case that he has appealed to the supreme court, is scheduled to begin on May 5, the verdict stated.
      
Olmert has always insisted on his innocence, describing the allegations against him as "a brutal, ruthless witch-hunt", and his lawyers said he would appeal the latest conviction.
      
He had initially been acquitted of fraud and corruption in the case, escaping in 2012 with a $19,000 fine and a suspended jail sentence for breach of trust.
      
But new evidence came to light during his trial in the other corruption case, and prosecutors again pressed the charges.
      
In return for a reduction in sentence, his former secretary and confidante Shula Zaken brought to the court secret recordings of conversations she had with Olmert.
                      
Olmert is heard talking about the tens of thousands of dollars that he received from businessman Morris Talansky while trade and industry minister in the early 2000s.
      
The six-year prison sentence handed down against Olmert in May last year...