Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit warned on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have broken the law prohibiting public officials from receiving high-valued gifts when he accepted funds from his uncle Nathan Milikowsky despite not using it for his own personal gain.
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Netanyahu accepted some $270,000 from Milikowsky in order to cover his wife's legal fees during her recent trial, in which she was accused of defrauding the state.
According to the original indictment, Sara Netanyahu, along with a government employee, fraudulently obtained from the state hundreds of meals supplied by restaurants, with a total value of some $100,000, bypassing regulations that prohibit the practice if a cook is employed at home.
As part of the revised indictment and a plea bargain, the fraud charge was dropped. Instead, Netanyahu was charged with intentionally exploiting another person's mishandling of state money for her own benefit. Netanyahu also agreed to pay the state 45,000 shekels ($12,500) in reimbursement and a 10,000 shekel ($2,800) fine.
In his statement on Sunday, Mendelblit said that despite the language of the law stipulating that a prime minister was not allowed to receive monetary benefits and gifts, it "doesn't mean that such gifts have to be given directly to the prime minister."
According to Mendelblit's interpretation, "it is possible that the law could be applied to benefits given to the spouse of the prime minister or someone else who is close to him." Mendelblit said that this matter should be referred to the special committee tasked with reviewing financial matters pertaining to ministers.
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