Prosecutors reach a plea deal with Ezra Saidoff, a former caretaker at the Prime Minister’s Residence who was accused along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, of misusing hundreds of thousands of shekels in state funds to purchase catering meals.
Ezra Saidoff, former deputy director of the Prime Minister’s Office, arrives to the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on October 7, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Similar to a plea deal with Netanyahu signed last week, Saidoff will confess to an offense of taking advantage of a mistake, avoiding an earlier charge of aggravated fraud.
According to the plea deal — which still needs to be approved in court — Saidoff will receive a suspended sentence, 150 hours of community service and a NIS 10,000 ($2,800) fine.
A year ago, Netanyahu and Saidoff were charged with fraud and breach of trust for spending $100,000 of state funds on catered meals, while there was a full-time chef on staff. That amount was slashed by half in the amended indictment to some $50,000.
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