Netanyahu was questioned under caution – as someone who might be charged with a crime – in December 2015 by Israel Police’s Lahav 433 fraud investigation unit.
Israel Police recommended indicting Sara Netanyahu, wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, concerning irregularities in the running of the prime minister’s households in Jerusalem and Caesarea.
The prime minister’s wife was questioned under caution – as someone who might be charged with a crime – in December 2015 by Israel Police’s Lahav 433 fraud investigation unit.
She was said to be asked to detail her involvement in the running of the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem and explain whether state funds were used to pay service providers at their private residence in Caesarea.
The probe, based on a state comptroller’s report issued in February, along with evidence supplied by Meni Naftali, a former chief caretaker at the official residence, focused on three issues.
The police have found an evidentiary basis for indictments against Sara Netanyahu, Fahima and against Ezra Seidoff, the deputy director general of the Prime Minister’s Office. In a statement released by the police on Monday, there was no explicit reference to evidence against the three, however.
“The national unit of the Israel Police has concluded its investigation of the Prime Minister’s Residences,” the statement read. “The case began in February 2015 with the approval of the attorney general and the state prosecutor and focused on a number of issues in connection to which suspicion of the commission of criminal offenses arose, including fraudulent receipt, fraud and breach of trust, including addressing mutual accusations. At the conclusion all of the purported evidence, findings and insights gathered in the police investigation were provided to the Jerusalem district prosecutor–which was involved in the investigation—for its review and decision.”
The police statement was unusual in that usually such statements note whether the findings are based on a suspicion that criminal offenses were committed or, alternatively, that police are recommending that indictments be filed. In the current case, the names of the three individuals who were investigated were not even mentioned.
