The weapons company whose drones killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom in Gaza has been washing taxpayers’ money into Israel with cheap loans and large dividend payments, on top of its related party payments for weapons contractors. Michael West reports.
Australia is effectively financing the genocide of Palestinians and the slaughter of foreign aid workers with public money.
MWM has analysed the past four years of financial statements for Elbit Systems of Australia Pty Ltd. This company is directly owned by Elbit Systems Ltd in Israel; it is the country’s largest weapons maker. Its drones were deployed in the precision missile strikes on the World Kitchen Central aid convoy in Gaza, which killed seven aid workers, including Australian Zomi Frankcom.
Among the findings:
- Elbit’s Australian company board is stacked with Israeli Elbit executives
- Elbit Australia has paid almost $17 million in dividends to its Israel parent company over the past two years ($6.9m in 2023 and $10m in 2022).
- $1.5m was given to Elbit Australia last year in government grants ($1.3m in the year before)
- Last year, Elbit Australia made a loan of $3.5m to its parent company or a company controlled by its parent at interest rates of 4.77%. Home loan mortgages average more than 6% and business loans at least twice that.
These revelations come at a time when the ‘Binskin Inquiry’ report into the death of Zomi Frankcom is about to be made partially public. As the 100-day mark since the killing of Frankcom by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) passed last week, a story was leaked to Guardian Australia which indicated that only part of the Binskin findings about “the incident” would be made public.
In another leak today to Rupert Murdoch’s pro-Israel The Australian, it was made clear that no fault would be laid at the feet of Israel for what was a ‘mistake’ in the fog of war.
This despite clear evidence of three separate missile attacks on a convoy of World Kitchen Central aid vehicles, which were clearly marked.
The financial picture of Australia’s military and financial support for the regime of Benjamin Netanyahu is even bleaker when you consider that the government gave Elbit a $917m weapons contract earlier this year; and our sovereign wealth fund under Peter Costello, the Future Fund has become an investor in Elbit Systems.
Future Fund ducks for cover over war crimes investment in Elbit
The board of Elbit Systems Australia comprises Acting Chair Kym Osley, who is ex-Air Force, Israeli Boaz Cohen, the Senior Vice President Land Systems for Elbit Systems, Haim Delmare, an Israeli 20-year veteran executive of parent group Elbit veteran, Joseph Gaspar, the chief financial officer of parent Elbit Systems, Dr Karen Stanton the chair and defence industry advocate, Jaimie Hatcher – formerly of Defence now defence industry, and company director Roger Powell.
For a multinational company with revenues of $23m last year, down from $55m (they are likely to rise sharply this year since the Gaza campaign began last October) the dividends to the parent group in Israel are high – $6.9m last year and $10m in 2022.
After “marketing, innovation and bids proposals” expenses of $3.7m last year and general admin expenses of $2.7m and staff costs, they managed to eke out a profit of just 19k. So tax paid is negligible. It was $666k the year prior. The cashflow statement shows a $1.3m tax credit last year.
And government grants?
What is particularly unusual however are the government grants and the related party loan. Why would Elbit Australia be lending money to its Nasdaq listed parent company in Israel? And why at an interest rate just marginally above the Reserve Bank cash rate at 4.35%?
Related party contract work is in the tens of millions of dollars each year, as is expected with these kinds of operations and the company has also been claiming the R&D tax benefit.
Revenue peaked at $93m in 2021Rp contract work 21m in 2021
In the leak to The Australian today about the Binskin Inquiry report, “Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said he would not be surprised if Air Chief Marshal Binskin’s report confirmed that the IDF had “a robust system of investigating itself”, and that the IDF had “learned from the mistakes made in the air strike to ensure such an incident should never happen again”.
“The IDF is professional and moral, as many high-ranking officers from other Western defence forces have found after working with the IDF,” Dr Rubenstein said. “Tragic accidents do happen in war, regardless of who is fighting, but it is important to thoroughly investigate all the circumstances and take steps to do everything possible to ensure such accidents aren’t repeated, as the IDF’s independent investigation has done.”
McBride, Binskin and the Keystone Cops – culture of cover-ups now Zomi Frankcom investigation
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.