Space Network News Jerusalem-based news website highlighting positive and inspiring stories & news

By Itzhak Rabihiya

PM's wife admits to deliberately exploiting mistake of others in ordering catering to official residence; will pay back one third of NIS 175,000 bill she ran up despite having own chef on site.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife Sara on Sunday signed a plea deal over the misuse of state funds for meals at the premier's official residence. Under the terms of the plea deal reached last week, Netanyahu admitted during the hearing at Jerusalem Magistrate's Court to deliberately exploiting the mistake of another in ordering meals to the prime minister's residence that cost NIS 175,000 (approx. $50,000) The deal states that Netanyahu will pay back NIS 55,000 (approx. $12,000) of the NIS 175,000 bill she admitted to running up in private catering for a residence that already had a chef in situ.

She will not have to plead guilty to defrauding the state, as she was accused of doing when the indictment was first filed in June 2018, nor will she stand trial after the case went through a six-month long arbitration process. The reimbursement to be paid by Netanyahu includes a NIS 45,000 repayment to the state coffers, and a fine of NIS 10,000. The original sum of NIS 350,000 (approx. $97,000 ) was lowered to NIS 175,000 as part of the plea bargain. As part of the mediation process, the two sides agreed to soften the indictment against Netanyahu, who is convicted of a minor offense as opposed to the original charges of fraud and breach of trust.

Prosecutor Erez Padan told the hearing: "As in any plea bargain, each side makes concessions, sometimes difficult concessions, taking into account its understanding of the case and the chances and risks in handling the case. The prosecution believes that we made significant concessions and it is fair to assume that the defense also feels this way. Ultimately, the mutual concessions facilitated the delivery of a plea bargain that we believe is balanced."

Netanyahu's lawyer, however, called the sentence a "severe and painful punishment. This is one of the most severe, tough and painful punishments that a person I know has been given. This is an intolerable punishment, an inhuman punishment," he said. "The moment the investigation began, so did a massive, malicious and defamatory campaign of leaks. My client's blood spilled in the streets. They forgot that she was a mother and a wife. This was an unprecedented process of demonization that no reasonable person could endure. This lady is made of special steel."

Meanwhile on Sunday, the High Court of Justice rejected a petition to veto the plea deal as too lenient. The petition had called the plea bargain caving into political pressure and treating Netanyahu far too leniently, which would lead to a loss of public faith in the legal system and the rule of law.

The state convinced the High Court that the deal was within its discretion and that the rule of law was being validated, since it had compelled Netanyahu to confess to a crime after years in which she adamantly refused to admit any wrongdoing.

Last June, Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit filed an indictment against the prime minister’s wife for fraud with aggravated circumstances and breach of public trust.The attorney-general alleged that from September 2010 until March 2013, Netanyahu acted in coordination with the other defendant in the case, former Prime Minister’s Office deputy director-general Ezra Seidoff, to falsely misrepresent that the Prime Minister’s Residence did not employ a chef.

According to the allegations, Netanyahu and Seidoff made misrepresentations to circumvent and exploit regulations that stated: “In a case where a cook is not employed in the [prime minister’s] official residence, it is permitted to order prepared food as needed.”

The two hoped to obtain state funding both for the chef at the residence and for prepared food orders. In this way, the two allegedly obtained from the state NIS 359,000 for hundreds of prepared food orders. However, Netanyahu’s lawyers appear to have reduced the NIS 359,000 sum to NIS 175,000, using various defenses.

In addition, the revised indictment made it sound like Netanyahu did not actively act falsely, but merely passively did not tell some of the office staff that there was a cook and that having a cook meant she needed to limit prepared food orders.