Cineworld chief is handed suspended prison sentence in Israel

THE chief executive of Cineworld has been handed a suspended prison sentence and fined after being convicted in Israel for anti-competitive practices.

Mooky Greidinger was yesterday told to pay around £23,000 and handed a six-month suspended prison sentence,

Cineworld confirmed in a statement. Forum Film, the cinema chain’s Israeli distribution unit, was also fined around £150,000. It comes after Israel’s competition regulator accused the company of withholding eight films from a smaller competitor in Tel Aviv.

This breached regulatory conditions that were placed on Forum Film after its acquisition in 2010, which required the firm to share wide-release films with other Israeli cinemas upon request.

Forum Film “agreed with the Israeli Anti-trust Authority that it was in breach of the terms of a merger agreement and that Mooky Greidinger was indirectly responsible for failing to prevent such breach”, the company said.

Cineworld said the judgment was not expected to have any impact on the continued operations of Forum Film, the Cineworld Group or Mr Greidinger’s position as chief executive.

The world’s second largest cinema operator filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US in October after crumpling under the weight of a mountain of debt and pandemic losses. It is attempting a restructure and the chain’s venues remain open as normal.

The company has blamed its predicament on disappointing box office sales both during and after the Covid pandemic, which have put a strain on its finances and made it harder to pay down its $5bn (£4bn) debt. The chain employs thousands of staff in Britain and operates 127 Cineworld and Picturehouse theatres.

Globally it employs 28,000 people. At the height of the pandemic, Cineworld temporarily shut its UK cinemas and placed 5,500 workers on furlough.

The company slumped to an annual loss of $708m in 2021.