Attorney general orders criminal probe into PM’s Residence expenses

The attorney general ordered a criminal investigation into irregular spending at the Prime Minister’s Residence Monday, but said neither Premier Benjamin Netanyahu nor his wife, Sara, were currently considered suspects.

The investigation will focus on mid-level officials at the Prime Minister’s Office, including deputy director general for operations Ezra Saidoff, and will be conducted by Israel Police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said he would hand over evidence regarding Saidoff to the Civil Service Commission, the government’s personnel overseeing unit, to consider his suspension from office.

The decision to launch the investigation came following the State Prosecutor’s recommendations, after allegations were raised in a February report by State Comptroller Yosef Shapira that detailed lavish spending by Netanyahu and his wife at their official residence in Jerusalem, as well as at their private home in Caesarea. The report also alleged possible criminal misdeeds by the two.

The investigation found multiple alleged irregularities, including in the hiring of electrician Avi Fahima, a Likud Central Committee member. A committee charged with overseeing residence expenditures — and which included the Prime Minister’s Office legal adviser — ruled against the hiring of Fahima, but he was hired anyway.

In the Fahima case, the State Comptroller report criticized Sara Netanyahu for ordering the electrician’s services at public expense without any external audit of the need for those services, or any confirmation that they were carried out.

For several months in 2010, the comptroller found, Fahima did not produce receipts for his labor, and allegedly received fees far higher than those that appeared in his initial cost estimates.

On the basis of the State Comptroller’s report, criminal charges could also be filed over the accusation that Sara Netanyahu pocketed some NIS 4,000 ($1,035) of bottle refunds for recycling. The report also included accusations that she purchased a set of patio furniture identical to the patio furniture at the official residence, which was subsequently delivered to the Netanyahus’ private residence.

The report on the expenditures of the PM’s Residence came out in the midst of an election campaign and found that the residence operated for years without an audited budget. It raised questions about the use of public funds, which were spent on — among other things — the upkeep of the Netanyahus’ pool at their private Caesarea home.

The report also noted that, beginning in 2013 — when criticism led to heightened awareness of the issue among the prime minister’s staff — a systematic, audited budget was instituted and expenditures declined precipitously.

Complaints were raised over the past year by former Prime Minister’s Residence custodian Menny Naftali, who accused Sara Netanyahu of abusing residence staff, among other misdeeds. He is suing the Netanyahus and Saidoff for damages.

David Shimron, the Netanyahu family lawyer, said after the publication of the State Comptroller’s report that Naftali was not a credible witness, and added that the “minor” report did not contain allegations of criminal behavior.

Shimron said the entire scandal was the work of “a very large campaign… by very large forces… designed to bring down” the prime minister.