The investigation into alleged misuse of state funds by the Netanyahu household led to a new headache for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday as transcripts of recordings emerged from 2010 conversations between a former shut confidant of the household and the Prime Minister’s Office prime authorized adviser on the time by which the 2 officers focus on allegedly inappropriate makes use of of public funds by the premier and his wife.
The recordings, made by Netanyahu spokesman-turned-state’s witness Nir Hefetz, function conversations Hefetz had with the authorized adviser within the Prime Minister’s Office, Shlomit Barnea Farago.
The two are heard within the tapes discussing what they termed “greedy” calls for made by Sara Netanyahu for the state to fund landscaping work on the Netanyahus’ non-public residence in Caesarea, amongst different expenditures, in addition to the necessity to “protect the prime minister” from turning into “mixed up” within the alleged misappropriation of public funds, Hadashot TV mentioned, quoting what it mentioned have been excerpts.
Prime Minister Netanyahu launched a laconic however strident response, slamming the publication of the transcripts and dismissing the allegations as “false gossip that has no connection with the truth.”
In the transcripts, Hefetz at one level describes to Barnea Farago how Sara Netanyahu allegedly would take 4 or 5 suitcases value of dirty laundry on state trips in order that they may ship it for dry cleaning at accommodations the place they stayed, paid for by the state.
Shlomit Barnea Farago (Wikipedia)
Barnea Farago protested: “That’s misuse of public money, to bring laundry that isn’t used on the trip just so it can be dry-cleaned.”
On one event talked about within the transcripts, Sara Netanyahu is claimed to have taken eight suitcases of dirty laundry on an abroad journey for dry-cleaning overseas. Hefetz and Barnea Farago focus on why she would do this, when the state finances covers limitless dry cleaning bills, and speculate that she “likes the smell” on the clothes after overseas dry cleaning.
Some of the complaints targeted on the dearth of readability in regards to the guidelines that utilized to the Netanyahus, particularly when it got here to receiving private presents from well-wishers and world leaders.
Nir Hefetz seems in a Tel Aviv courtroom on February 22, 2018. (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)
After discussing the prohibition on receiving private presents for their non-public residence in Caesarea, Hefetz informed Barnea Farago at one level that “you gave me one example of [receiving] gifts, but I know there were many instances of gifts that went straight to [the prime minister’s official residence on] Balfour [Street in Jerusalem].”
Barnea Farago then complained that there wasn’t a onerous and quick rule on the problem. “I want the attorney general to tell me what to do, that Yehuda [Weinstein, then the attorney general,] say ‘Balfour rules are Caesarea rules,'” in different phrases, that presents aren't permitted to the prime minister’s official Jerusalem Balfour Street residence both.
“What is this double game?” she calls for of Hefetz. “I have to be the one confronting the prime minister?”
At one level Barnea Farago warns Hefetz, “We have to protect the prime minister so he doesn’t get mixed up in these things, and we also have to protect ourselves. Tomorrow they’ll come and ask how we approved all these things.”
Staff on the prime minister’s two residences have lengthy complained about alleged mistreatment by Sara Netanyahu, complaints which have been the topic of lawsuits and media scandals, and have been vehemently denied by the Netanyahus.
In the transcripts, Hefetz tells Farago, “I saw with my own eyes [top adviser] Natan [Eshel] and [then-deputy director general of the PMO] Ezra [Saidoff], with my own eyes, standing in the Caesarea [home] and cleaning the air conditioner.”
The revelations within the tapes are eight years previous, however their publication comes simply three days after state attorneys filed an indictment in opposition to Sara Netanyahu for alleged misuse of some $100,000 in state funds between 2010 and 2013.
In Thursday’s indictment, the prime minister’s wife is charged together with Saidoff for fraud and breach of belief.
Ezra Saidoff, deputy director of the Prime Minister’s Office, in Jerusalem on May 10, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The two are accused of fraudulently charging some NIS 359,000 ($100,000) in connoisseur meals to the state’s expense in the course of the interval in query, violating guidelines which ban the ordering of ready meals when a chef is already employed on the Prime Minister’s Residence.
As acknowledged by the indictment, Netanyahu falsely claimed there was no prepare dinner on the time within the Jerusalem residence with a purpose to buy meals from eating places.
The costs in opposition to Saidoff are extra extreme as he's additionally accused of illicitly hiring cooks and servers for non-public meals on the Netanyahu residence. The PMO staffer additionally falsified invoices for such actions with a purpose to get them accepted.
The indictment additionally covers the employment of an electrician, whose hiring had initially been scrapped by the PMO as a result of man’s shut connection to the Netanyahu household.
Saidoff is accused of falsifying paperwork that have been used to avoid the PMO’s authentic order that the electrician’s hiring be annulled.
Yehoshua Reznik, a lawyer for Saidoff, denied the fees, calling them “fundamentally wrong and inconsistent with the legal and factual situation as shown by the evidence in the case.”
Thursday’s costs have been reportedly primarily based partly on testimony from Hefetz.
The resolution to launch the investigation into Sara Netanyahu got here after allegations of misuse of funds have been raised in a 2015 report by State Comptroller Yosef Shapira that detailed lavish spending on the official residence in Jerusalem, in addition to on the Netanyahus’ Caesarea residence.
Under state rules, cooks on the Prime Minister’s Residence are supposed to provide prime ministers and their rapid households with each day meals. Where cooks aren't employed, the PM’s household is permitted to order exterior meals, as much as a most value of NIS 200 ($57) per individual plus tax.
The state can be licensed to foot the invoice for non-public visitors of the prime minister and his or her partner as long as this isn't a social or household occasion involving greater than 20 individuals.