TEL Aviv _ Agencies
New criminal suspicions are hovering over the wife of the Israeli prime minister, Sarah Netanyahu, concerning the fraud in case 4000, also known as the "Bezek-no case". In the past, Netanyahu had been charged with a similar offence in the case of the "Prime Minister´s houses", under which work in Netanyahu´s private homes had been carried out and financed from the budget of the Office of the Prime Minister as a maintenance work at the official residence of the head of government. The newspaper "Ha´aretz" on Friday revealed that suspicions related to the operation of the Netanyahu family media advisor, Nir Hevets, according to new suspicions. He reportedly signed an agreement with the Public Prosecutor´s Office, under which he became a king against Netanyahu and his family.
Last week, Israeli police representatives officially announced that the head of Government, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his wife were suspected of receiving bribes from the owner of the telecommunications company, "Bezek ", Shaul Alovic and his wife Iris. The main suspect in case 4000 is Netanyahu, who, in his capacity as Minister of Communications, has approved a $1 billion package for Alovic, through the sale of shares of a satellite company "Wiis" from the company "Eurocom " of the company "Bezek ".
On the other hand, Netanyahu received positive and supportive coverage through his website, "and", which is owned by Alovic. When this case erupted earlier this year, a number of suspects were arrested, including Alovic himself, the government´s judicial advisor, Afiai Mendelpelat, hesitated to allow the police to investigate Sarah Netanyahu under suspicion of receiving bribes.
But the suspicions now following the widening of the investigation in case 4000, according to the paper, are that Sara Netanyahu tried to create a false scene, claiming through him that she was spent from her own money to finance the services provided by Hevets. If investigators prove these suspicions, they will involve Sarah Netanyahu in committing another fraud, and this time it will be for the state Comptroller, the paper said. To provide false information to the Office of the Observer in the context of its investigation of the case.
The police collected materials from the observer´s office, which featured a well-known charitable association in Israel, as part of an investigation into the relationship between the hevets and the Netanyahu family. These new suspicions have led the police to refrain from reaching a deal or compromise with Netanyahu on the issue of "Prime minister´s houses", which would have exempted Netanyahu from a criminal stigma against her. "It is not possible to reach such a settlement while the accused is at the same time suspected of committing a similar offense," the paper said.
According to the paper, a number of reports said that Benjamin Netanyahu had been able to ask people who had worked with him to refund their payments. The head of the "Jewish Home " and the current Minister of Education, Nafyli Bennett, said that he volunteered as President of the election headquarters to Netanyahu when he was president of the opposition, and that the latter promised to pay him a symbolic sum of between one thousand and two thousand shekels. Bennett told an investigator at the Observer´s office that although Netanyahu had handed him one cheque, "when Sara Netanyahu learned of the order he was asked to return the cheque."
The media advisor, Odelia Krmon, who worked alongside Netanyahu in the same period, also reported that Sara Netanyahu´s reaction when she learned to pay her was "nervous, and I said I took her children´s food."
The former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was convicted on charges of obtaining personal benefits by fraud, because they were concealed from the state comptroller in the "financial envelopes" case. In this regard, the Supreme Court decided that Olmert had committed a fraud against the state comptroller.
Netanyahu and his wife are suspected of several criminal cases, which are being investigated. But the law enforcement body considers that the case 4000 will lead to the decoding of the remaining issues, because of similarities, especially between the 4000 and 2000 cases, also known as the case of "personal benefits ", cigars, champagne and gold ornaments, which was provided by businessman Arnun Milchen.
