Netanyahu finances raise ‘fear of criminality’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is no stranger to financial scandals. A new report by an Israeli watchdog has cited a "fear of criminality" over yet another case involving the prime minister and his family when he was the finance minister over a decade ago.

The Tuesday report by Israeli comptroller Yosef Shapira says Netanyahu, now in his fourth term as prime minister, received funding from private organizations and donors for family travels between 2003 and 2005.

The latest scandal, dubbed by Israeli media as the "Bibi Tours Affair", says the payments were made by "foreign entities", mainly Israel Bonds - a US-based broker-dealer that underwrites Israeli debt securities.

"The trips by Netanyahu and his family that were funded by external sources when he was finance minister deviated from the rules, and could give the impression of receiving a gift or of a conflict of interest," the report said.

Netanyahu’s refusal to submit full details of his trips to oversight committees gave "rubber stamp approval" of their travel on official business, the report added.

"Netanyahu did not apply to the gifts committee or the permits committee in order to ascertain if in receiving outside funding there was acceptance of a benefit or a prohibited gift," said the Hebrew-language report on the official watchdog’s website.

The report also cited Netanyahu and his family’s "lack of clarity" over their accounting and appropriation of public funds for private use.

The prime minister’s lawyer, Yossi Cohen, however, dismissed the report, saying the revelations do not show criminal conduct.

Israeli Knesset (Parliament) Speaker Yuli-Yoel Edelstein formally received the report on Tuesday and it is now up to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, Netanyahu’s former cabinet secretary, to decide whether a formal investigation must be opened.

The damning revelations come only three months after former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert began serving a 19-month prison sentence for bribery and obstruction of justice.

Similar reports over the last few years have also slammed the extensive costs of the Netanyahu family's lavish life style.

In a report in February last year, the official watchdog revealed that Netanyahu and his wife Sara had spent vast amounts of taxpayers’ money on food, furniture, cleaning and gardening at their residences in al-Quds (Jerusalem) and in the coastal city of Caesarea.

Bibi’s wife has also come under fire for her lavish tastes and abusive behavior toward staff members.

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