Israel British Bank was a bank founded in the 1930s by Polish Jewish immigrants to Mandate Palestine

Mandate Palestine

Mandate Palestine existed while the British Mandate for Palestine, which formally began in September 1923 and terminated in May 1948, was in effect...

 as the Immigrant Bank. It was purchased in 1938 by Nahum Zeev Williams and on his death passed into the hands of a group headed by his family, associated with the Mizrachi movement

Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)

The Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement associated with Mizrachi...

.

In July 1974 the bank collapsed, owing British investors £46.6 million. Yehoshua Ben-Zion

Yehoshua Ben-Zion

Yehoshua Ben-Zion was an Israeli banker. He served as the managing director of Israel-British Bank. Following the collapse of the bank in July 1974, owing British investors £46.6 million, Ben-Zion was convicted of embezzling £20 million from the bank. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison...

, the managing director of Israel-British Bank was convicted of embezzling £20 million ($39.4 million) from the bank. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. After urging of the Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin

Menachem Begin

' was a politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Before independence, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944,...

 in 1977, Ben-Zion was pardoned by the Israeli president Ephraim Katzir

Ephraim Katzir

Ephraim Katzir was an Israeli biophysicist and former Israeli Labor Party politician. He was the fourth President of Israel from 1973 until 1978.-Biography:...

, on medical grounds. He was released after serving three years.