‘A-G knew of Bottlegate 7 months ago’

Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein was aware of Sara Netanyahu pocketing the money from depositing beverage bottles for a full seven months before Haaretz broke the story this morning.

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira, who was alerted by former employees at the Prime Minister’s Residence of the issue, then passed on the information to Weinstein.

Weinstein, Ynet reports, returned the file to Shapira without any clear indication on how to proceed.

According to the complaints by the former employees, Sara Netanyahu systematically took the small change earned from returning deposited bottles to supermarkets and grocery stores. Since the beverages at the Prime Minister’s Residence are paid for by the state, Netanyahu’s taking the deposit money for herself may constitute theft.

The Netanyahus paid NIS 4,000 (c. $1,000) last year in lieu of the deposit money. But according to a rough estimate by a former employee at the Prime Minister’s Residence, the Netanyahus’ drinks came in bottles worth some NIS 250 (c. $65) every two weeks. The small change from deposits, over four years, is not so small after all: around NIS 24,000.  Incidentally, Israeli media report that the favorite drink of Israel’s royal couple is Perrier mineral water.