Comptroller set to rap PM for ‘suspicion of criminal’ behavior

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have broken laws forbidding receiving benefits and accepting gifts while he was serving as finance minister a decade ago, according a report to be released Tuesday afternoon on suspected financial misconduct in the so-called “Bibitours” affair.

The state comptroller report, due to be released at 4 p.m., is expected to allege that Netanyahu had private donors and organizations fund trips and travel expenses for him and his family — in some case, there was cause to suspect a conflict of interest — without the clearance of relevant bodies.

A press release from the comptroller’s office ahead of the report maintained that State Comptroller Yosef Shapira had pressed the attorney general in 2015 to reopen an investigation into several matters given the “suspicion of criminal [wrongdoing].”

The comptroller “found that the travels of Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu and his family, funded by outside sources while he served as finance minister, deviated from the rules on the subject, and the matter is liable to create the perception that he accepted benefits or [had a] conflict of interest. It will be noted that in all of those cases, like other ministers at that period, Mr. Netanyahu did not turn to the committees on gifts or permissions to evaluate whether [it was permitted],” the press release said.

Hours before the release of the full report, a lawyer representing the Netanyahu family claimed the prime minister was the target of a media witch hunt and that there was “no basis whatsoever” to talk of suspected criminal wrongdoing.

Michael Ravello, a lawyer hired by the Netanyahus over the past decade to deal with the case, told Army Radio that there was nothing damning in the comptroller’s report.

“[The media] have been raking the Netanyahus’ flesh with iron combs for 20 years and haven’t found a thing. That’s what will happen this time too,” he said. “They’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”

The affair, first reported by Channel 10 in 2011 and dubbed “Bibitours” by the Hebrew press, centered on allegations that Netanyahu had double billed travel expenses while serving as a member of Knesset and minister in prime minister Ariel Sharon’s government, and had trips payed for people and organizations with vested interests in policies and programs he was involved with.

Channel 2 reported Monday that investigators are seeking to determine whether there were grounds to reopen a full criminal investigation into the alleged irregularities by Netanyahu.

Choosing his words carefully, Ravello denied the double-billing allegations while avoiding details about the specifics of the case.

“Reports in the media about double billing are unfounded. I know all the information in the investigations and there is not even one cent of double billing, not one cent,” he said.

As well as focusing on private funding received without clearance from the Knesset Ethics Committee, the report will also address the 2014 decision by then-attorney general Yehuda Weinstein to not launch a criminal investigation into the case, despite the comptroller’s recommendation.

Last year the High Court of Justice said state prosecutors had mishandled the Bibitours case, forcing it to be closed.

The three-year investigation afforded Netanyahu preferential treatment because of the “public and institutional implications involving the investigation of the prime minister,” the report said.

The High Court’s statement regarding the handling of the case came after a group of petitioners, led by Labor Party MK Mickey Rosenthal, petitioned the court to release its account of the probe.

“The [prosecution’s] approach was intended to thwart, in most cases, the possibility of conducting a criminal investigation,” the petition charged.

Rosenthal told Army Radio Tuesday that the comptroller’s report would prove the legal proceedings constituted “one of the gravest fudgings of an investigation in Israel’s history.”

The suit had been thrown out by Weinstein in part due to the length of time that had elapsed since the alleged misconduct.

The State Attorney’s Office rejected the findings of the High Court report over the weekend, countering that the decision to not prosecute Netanyahu was apolitical and that there was no necessity to question the prime minister himself.