TO:

CC:

Chief Internal Auditor Jacob Orbach, Member of the Board of Management BANK HAPOALIM, BM, Israel Email: <jacob.orbach@mailpoalim.co.il>; shalom.barashi@mailpoalim.co.il, Ms Maya Shulyatsky <maya.shulyatsky@mailpoalim.co.il>, david.zegen@mailpoalim.co.il, , drora.bregman@mailpoalim.co.il, maya.amzallag@mailpoalim.co.il, mordechai.assouline@mailpoalim.co.il, efrat.dahan@mailpoalim.co.il Fax: 03-607-3101, 03-567-3764; 1) Governor Stanley Fischer BANK OF ISRAEL Email: Ms Miriam Segal, Bank of Israel-Banking Regulation <miriam.segal@boi.org.il>, Fax: 02-666-9077 2) Consul Ludwig Blaurock, EMBASSY OF THE FEDERAL GERMAN REPUBLIC, Tel Aviv. 3) BIS and others Central Banks BASEL ACCORD COMMITTEE

RE: Arbitrary and capricious, FATCA-related actions by Bank HaPoalim, BM, against my accounts request for clarification of my account status today Your letter, dated February 10, 2013, Ref: 1-7084119156 [1] My letter of February 12, 2013 [2]
RESPONSE WITHIN 10 DAYS IS KINDLY REQUESTED TO MR JACOB ORBACH, Chief Internal Auditor and Member of the Board of Management, Bank HaPoalim, BM: It appears that our letters, referenced above, crossed each other by mail. Your letter provided the response on my first question the restoration, even if partial, of my right to access my own funds was temporary, since the Bank now issued a new set of demands, and with them are probably some sanctions, their nature undisclosed, as in the past. Otherwise, your response letter, dated February 10, 2013 is unacceptable for the following reasons: 1) Your letter purports to deny indisputable actions by Bank HaPoalim, BM - blocking of my accounts during the month of January 2013. At the same time, your February 10, 2013 continues to make demands and unclear threats against my accounts with no legal foundation at all. 2) The legal basis for such demands and threats is again tied to unspecific provisions of FATCA, a United States law, and your letter demands the signing of unnamed forms, of unspecified legal foundation. Please notice that such legal fabrications have lost all shred of credibility: a) A recent letter from Bank of Israel-Banking Regulation, on behalf of Governor Stanley Fischer, makes it clear: first - that conduct of Bank HaPoalim, BM, in my case had no basis in the law of the State of Israel, and second - that Bank of Israel-Banking Regulation had no intention of according me equal protection under the law of the State of Israel. [3]

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b) A recent opinion letter by Attorney James Jatras, of the Washington, DC, law firm Squire Sanders, LLP, makes it clear that conduct of Bank HaPoalim, BM, in my case had no basis in the law of the United States, either. [4] c) Correspondence with your office makes it clear that the FATCA-related "New Policy" of Bank HaPoalim, which was purported as the basis for the Bank's conduct, is a non-existing document. Moreover, to this date, Bank HaPoalim refuses to issue any written record, documenting the freezing, or unfreezing of my accounts. [5] Therefore, in any response on my February 12, 2013 request for clarifications regarding status of my accounts today, I kindly request that the Bank provide specific legal references, naming the jurisdiction (e.g., US Federal, one of the several states, Israel, Ratified International Law, etc), be specific regarding the law and its provisions that are the basis for any claims, demands, threats, etc. With it, one must raise serious concern regarding the integrity of both Internal and External Audit at Bank HaPoalim, BM, and compliance of the Bank with sound banking principles vis a vis the Basel Accords on international banking, and likewise, the integrity and effect of banking regulation by Bank of Israel under the tenure of Governor Stanley Fischer. Jerusalem, February 18, 2012,

_________________ Joseph Zernik, PhD PO Box 31440 Jerusalem, 91313 LINKS: [1] 13-02-10 FATCA: Response by Bank HaPoalim, BM, on behalf of Chief Internal Auditor Jacob
Orbach

http://www.scribd.com/doc/126000354/ [2] 13-02-12 FATCA, Stanley Fischer - Request for clarifications by Bank HaPoalim's Chief Internal
Auditor Jacob Orbach in re: Account Status TODAY http://www.scribd.com/doc/125149261/ [3] 13-01-27 Stanley Fischer, Bank of Israel Response re: FATCA, Bank HaPoalim, BM

http://www.scribd.com/doc/123951835/ [4] 13-02-06 Attorney James Jatras opinion in re: Bank of Israel's Stanley Fischer's January 27, 2013
FATCA Response Letter http://www.scribd.com/doc/124247597/ [5] 13-01-28 FATCA, Stanley Fischer: Letter to Chief Internal Auditor Jacob Orbach, re: Phone calls by Bank HaPoalim http://www.scribd.com/doc/122570341/

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