Ex-Netanyahu aide gets 6 months’ community service, $190,000 fine for fraud conviction
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
Ari Harow, a former chief of staff to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is sentenced to six months’ community service and a NIS 700,000 ($188,000) fine by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court for his conviction in January on a charge of fraud and breach of trust.
Harow was convicted in a plea bargain in which he agreed to serve as a state witness in cases 1000 and 2000 in Netanyahu’s criminal trial on corruption charges.
Harow was convicted for having engaged in a “fictitious sale” of a political consultancy company he had owned, which he had been required to sell as part of his conflict of interest agreement when he became Netanyahu’s chief of staff in 2014.
The fictitious sale preserved Harow’s connections to the company, which he took full ownership of a year after “selling” it. During that year, Harow acted to benefit the company while serving as the prime minister’s chief of staff.
