French businessman says he gave Netanyahu €170,000 in 2001

Arnaud Mimran, a French businessman accused of fraud, tells Channel 10 that he gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu €170,000 in 2001, not the €35,000 as claimed by Netanyahu today.

Earlier today Netanyahu reiterated his rejection of the allegation that he received €1 million in campaign funding from Mimran, but acknowledged for the first time that he had received a smaller sum from the accused French fraudster.

“In August 2001 when Netanyahu was a private citizen, Mimran donated $40,000 to a fund for Mr. Netanyahu’s public activity, which included many media appearances and public diplomacy campaigns abroad on behalf of the State of Israel, and which was conducted in accordance with the law,” the PMO said.

Mimran clarifies that he gave a million — not euros, but francs (which were phased out two years earlier), equivalent to roughly €170,000.

“I came to celebrate with Netanyahu when he won [the elections] in 2009, eight years after the donation and there’s no connection to the money I gave him,” he tells the channel from France.