On a winter day in January 1977, Israel’s Housing Minister, Avraham Ofer, shot himself on the beach in Tel Aviv. Months before, a massive embezzlement scandal had erupted involving Ofer and another leader of the ruling Mapai Party, Asher Yadlin, the incoming Governor of the Bank of Israel. The case—exposed by journalist Yigal Laviv—landed on the desks of Benjamin Ziegel, a high-ranking police officer, and Attorney General Aharon Barak, then a young law professor. Ziegel and Barak, hell-bent on eradicating corruption from the Israeli government, launched an investigation. The results were fateful: Ofer took his own life, Yadlin ended his career in jail, and the Mapai Party fell after 30 years in power.