Sara Netanyahu Will Be Indicted For $100K Fraud Scheme

Bibi and Sara Netanyahu. Image by Getty Images
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.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chief