Business and technologyארקדי גאידמק

Arcadi Gaydamak

Arcadi Gaydamak is a Russian-born French-Israeli businessman who owned Beitar Jerusalem, founded the Social Justice party and was tried in France in the Angola arms affair.

born 1952Owning Beitar JerusalemThe Angola arms affairFounding the Social Justice party2006 tent village for northern residents

Born: 8 April 1952, Moscow
Occupation: businessperson, politician
Party: Social Justice
Founded: Social Justice (2007), Business FM (2007)

Arcadi Gaydamak was born in 1952 in Moscow

Gaydamak was born in Moscow to a Jewish family. He immigrated to Israel in 1972 and lived on Kibbutz Beit HaShita, where he studied Hebrew. He later moved to France.

In France he opened a translation business, which opened a branch in Canada in 1982. He moved into import and export, and after the fall of the USSR he built business ties in Russia and Kazakhstan. He invested in phosphates, mining, media, and oil and grain in Angola.

In Israel he bought Beitar Jerusalem in 2005 and later the Bikur Holim hospital. He donated to Israeli groups and built a tent village for families from the north during the 2006 Lebanon conflict. In 2007 he founded Social Justice and ran for mayor of Jerusalem in 2008 without success.

In 2009 a French court convicted him in the Angola arms affair and sentenced him in absentia to 6 years. On appeal he was cleared of the arms charges and his sentence was cut to 3 years for tax offenses. He began serving it in November 2015 and was released in March 2016 under restrictions.