Sara Netanyahu Will Be Indicted For $100K Fraud Scheme
The wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sara, will be indicted on four counts of fraud for allegedly diverting some $100,000 in public funds for her family’s personal use, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit said.
Mendelblit gave Sara Netanyahu the news Friday, according to Army Radio.
“The attorney general examined the case evidence and reached the decision [to indict Sara Netanyahu] after consulting relevant sources, including the state prosecution and the Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office,” read a statement from the attorney general’s office Friday.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office dismissed the indictment as “absurd and unfounded.”
“Sara Netanyahu is a brave and honest woman,” read a statement posted on his Facebook page. Any financial discrepancy at the Prime Minister’s Residence came from former housekeeper Menny Naftali, described in the statement as “problematic.”
The Netanyahus ended their statement Thursday by alleging that they were the target of an “obsessive” smear campaign.
The most serious of the four charges being brought against Sara Netanyahu involves the hiring of electrician Avi Fahima, a Likud Central Committee member. A committee charged with overseeing residence expenditures — and which included the Prime Minister’s Office legal adviser — ruled against the hiring of Fahima, but he was employed regardless.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO