The Israel Police have arrested the controlling shareholder of Israeli telecom corporation Bezeq, Shaul Elovitch, along with his wife, son and other top Bezeq executives, on suspicion that Elovitch ensured positive coverage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the Walla news site – which Bezeq owns – in exchange for the advancement of government regulation worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the company.
Former journalists at the popular Israeli Walla news site have testified that they were actively pressured to avoid negative reporting of Netanyahu and his wife Sara.
On Monday, Channel 10 reported that the CEO of Walla, Ilan Yeshua, told police that Netanyahu, who also served as communications minister until May of last year, tried to intervene in the site's coverage of him and the corruption investigations involving him.
Yeshua told police when questioned that Netanyahu and his wife had made regular attempts to interfere with the management of the site and even went as far as to ask Elovitch to fire Walla's editor-in-chief, Aviram Elad, because the Netanyahus deemed the site's coverage of them less flattering than in the past.
Specifically, Yeshua reportedly said, the prime minister and his wife objected to an article from November 2016, calling for an investigation into Case 3,000 – a police investigation which involves alleged corruption in Israel's acquisition of submarines from a German shipyard.
Yeshua indicated that Sara Netanyahu also objected to another article supporting the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran – an agreement that the prime minister has consistently and vocally opposed.
Yeshua said he insisted that Elad keep his job.
The case surrounding the potentially illicit dealings involving Bezeq and Walla has been dubbed by police Case 4,000. Like the other open investigations involving Netanyahu, this case revolves around suspicions of corruption and conflict of interest. The prime minister is also under investigation for allegedly colluding with the publisher of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Arnon Mozes, to secure favorable coverage.
Police are also investigating whether Netanyahu, while still serving as communications minister, promised to help Elovitch arrange the sale of Walla.
On Tuesday, the police named the two close Netanyahu associates among the list of suspects arrested in the case, which has cast a further pall of suspicion over the longtime Israeli leader, already facing possible bribery charges in two other cases.
With an initial gag order lifted, police identified the pair as Nir Hefetz, a former Netanyahu spokesman, and Shlomo Filber, the former director of the communications ministry under Netanyahu.
Netanyahu himself has not yet been named as a suspect in the case but is expected to be questioned.
Meanwhile, both the police and the Israel Securities Authority are attempting to rope in a state's witness in Case 4,000. A senior police official told Israel Hayom on Monday that the police did not have any recordings of the conversations between Netanyahu and Elovitch, but they did have copies of email correspondence and text messages that supported the theory that the suspects had criminal intentions.
"This is a case involving impulses, money and interests," the official said. "We've been investigating this case for months. We've compiled a strong evidentiary base against the suspects," the official said.
Following the arrests, the police and the ISA have frozen the assets and bank accounts and impounded the vehicles of seven of the suspects in the case. Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has instructed the ISA to take the reins in the investigation of Case 4,000 and involve the Israel Police's Financial Crimes Unit.
If necessary, the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority in the Justice Ministry will also join the investigative effort, as will the Israel Tax Authority if tax fraud is suspected.
A representative for Elovitch said that he flatly denied the allegations against him and suggested "waiting patiently and not jumping to conclusions."
"We trust that when things clear up, it will become evident that no crime was committed," the representative said.
The arrests in Case 4,000 come after the ISA's investigations department announced in November 2017 that it had evidence suggesting criminal actions by senior Bezeq officials, including Elovitch, Filber and Bezeq CEO Stella Hendler in a number of affairs having to do with the Bezeq, satellite television provider Yes and Israeli communications satellite operator Spacecom.
Suspicions include fraudulent receipt of funds; consistent leaks from meetings of the company's independent committees that were asked to examine deals between Bezeq and Yes; and patronage for Bezeq in the Communications Ministry.
Specifically, the police are investigating the suspicion that Filber and others consistently worked to promote the interest of Bezeq, frequently by hiding information from officials in the Communications Ministry and other government ministries, and leaked confidential material from committee meetings about Spacecom, which Elovitch owns.
