A few years ago we worked on a sale of a shopping center for our unique client active in the real estate sector. Our client is Irish, the shopping center is located in a Polish city and the buyer was Hungarian. During the sale process there was an urgent need to meet with the buyer to negotiate a contract. It so happened that the meeting could only take place in Israel, where the buyer was at that time.
And so, we set off together with our Client (an Irishman, to remind you) to Tel Aviv to meet with the buyer. The flight to Tel Aviv included a transfer in Vienna. While waiting in Vienna for the flight to Israel, we caught the attention of Israeli officers. What is the purpose of the trip, why, who, what, with whom, why… And again: why and with whom… Over and over again, each of us was questioned by Mossad officers who tried to find out why we – our law firm’s partner and an Irish client – were going specifically to Israel to meet a Hungarian buyer of a shopping center in Poland. I have to admit that this combination may have been surprising indeed… After an hour of such an interview, the officers probably came to the conclusion, after verifying the correctness of our answers to their detailed questions, that we had no hidden intentions and so we could continue our journey. In the end, the transaction of sale of the shopping center was completed and the project was successful.
