In October 2009, when Israeli-Russian business tycoon, Arcadi Gaydamak, was indicted in Tel Aviv for laundering US$170 million through Bank Hapoalim, he fled to Russia. Several of the bank’s senior executives were indicted for conspiring with Gaydamak. Later that month, Gaydamak was "found guilty of masterminding [US]$790 million worth of illegal arms trafficking to the Angolan government" during its civil war in the 1990s. The French court sentenced him in absentia to six years in jail. Through "Angolagate," Gaydamak also committed "bribery, tax evasion, fraud and embezzlement." His goal was to secure Angolan oil-drilling rights in exchange for the provision of weapons. When his French trial began in 2008, Gaydamak avoided French authorities by fleeing to Israel.

Over the years, Hapoalim has financed large weapons makers like Israel Military Industries (IMI), the country’s largest state-owned weapons manufacturer. In 2004, Israel’s business paper, Globes, reported that because of a 1998 loan, IMI was still in debt to Hapoalim for US$110 million. (See "State-owned Israeli War Industries.")

Another Israeli military firm which has benefited from Hapoalim’s financing is Aeronautics Defense Systems, which makes unmanned aerial vehicles. In 2010, Hapoalim’s investment arm, Poalim Capital Markets, put US$3 million into Aeronautics. Poalim’s website lists Aeronautics among its four "principal investments." When reporting on Aeronautics in 2011, the Calcalist, a daily business paper in Israel, reported that "all of the company’s assets, including its production plant and bank accounts are mortgaged to Bank Hapoalim and Bank Discount." (See Discount Investment Corp.) The paper notes that Aeronautics’ "debt to the two banks stands at hundreds of millions of shekels." (Note: There are about 4 shekels in a dollar.)

Aeronautics not only makes numerous unmanned drones for Israel’s military, it also conducts military operations. Aeronautics’ website states:

Poalim also invested in PerSay, a spin-off from one of Israel’s biggest intelligence-related firms, Verint. (See "Israeli Spy Companies.")

Hapoalim is a principal shareholder and creditor of Gilat Satellite Networks, which serves Israeli military and intelligence agencies.

Hapoalim has also given long-term financing to Enlight, an Israeli company whose "largest project is the installation of 45 PV [photovoltaic] facilities on the roofs of buildings at IDF [Israel Defense Forces] bases." Besides this US$8 million IDF contract, Enlight is also building wind turbines for six villages in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The "Who Profits from the occupation" database, compiled by Israeli’s Coalition of Women for Peace, reveals Hapoalim’s complicity in financing the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. Hapoalim also provides mortgages to homebuyers in these settlements and gives loans and financial services to their local government authorities. And, the bank has branches in occupied East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and benefits from access to the captive Palestinian monetary market.

Hapoalim has loaned to Israeli businesses in the occupied territories, and has financed the Jerusalem light rail project, which connects illegal Israeli settlements with the downtown core.

One of Hapoalim’s former directors, Nahum Admoni, was the CEO of Mekorot, Israel’s National Water Co., which has overseen the plundering of water sources in the occupied territories. Admoni was also a director of the Discount Investment Corp. and Leumi Le’Israel. (See Leumi in table "CPP Investments.") More significantly, this Hapoalim director was the chief of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, from 1982 to 1989. During his leadership of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence community was scandalized by the arrest of Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli spy in the US, as well as by revelations about Israel’s role in the Iran-Contra scandal, and by their kidnapping of Mordechai Vanunu, an Israeli nuclear technician who blew the whistle on Israel’s nuclear weapons.

Dun’s 100 Israel’s Largest Enterprises
http://duns100.dundb.co.il/ts.cgi?tsscript=/2011e/e30a4

Bank Hapoalim
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Hapoalim