---
born: 1913-09-29
category: Other
died: 1995-06-30
location: Lipno, Poland
summary: Meridor became embroiled in a scandal when he, along with Joe Peeples and
  a Romanian expatriate, attempted to sell a theoretically feasible but practically
  impossible solar energy system to the Hunt brothers of Texas for $2 million.
tags:
- Person
---

[Yaacov Meridor](/people/yaacov-meridor/) was a long-time friend of [Menachem Begin](/people/menachem-begin/), who served as a minister without portfolio in Begin's government. He was involved in various businesses with [South Africa](/places/south-africa/) through Transkei, raking in commissions from countries that sought to bypass the boycott on [South Africa](/places/south-africa/) by dealing through Transkei. Everything had to go through Meridor or a company he owned, including [Degem](/organizations/degem/), which was actually controlled by [Israel](/places/israel/)'s military intelligence and provided computer services to the [South Africans](/places/south-africa/) and to [Guatemala](/places/guatemala/).[^1]

Meridor became embroiled in a scandal when he, along with [Joe Peeples](/people/joe-peeples/) and a Romanian expatriate, attempted to sell a theoretically feasible but practically impossible solar energy system to the [Hunt brothers](/people/hunt-brothers/) of [Texas](/places/texas/) for $2 million. He also sought a huge loan from the [Israeli](/places/israel/) Treasury for this project, publicly announcing it on TV. However, a scientist from the Weizmann Institute exposed the scheme as a fraud, leading to Meridor losing his job as a cabinet minister and his credibility. His Transkei operations were also affected, which opened the door for [Robert Maxwell](/people/robert-maxwell/) to take over [Degem](/organizations/degem/).[^1]

[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.