Likud minister May Golan threatens to ignore police summons after raid of her office

Social Equality Minister May Golan, who is suspected of fraud and illegally pocketing taxpayer money, threatens not to show up to a police interrogation today, after investigators summoned her for questioning.

Police are reportedly slated to question her today in the headquarters of law enforcement’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit.

Earlier this morning, police announced that they arrested Golan’s former adviser and detained several of her associates as part of a probe into allegations of widespread fraud and nepotism in her office.

Though Golan’s defense attorney previously confirmed she would show up for questioning, the Likud minister now backtracks, saying she will merely “consider” heeding police summons on the condition her associates are released.

“I will consider coming to the interrogation only if all my associates who were arrested, with the aim of intimidating me, are released immediately,” she says.

She calls the police’s string of arrests and detentions this morning a “dirty move” intended to “threaten innocent people just because they worked and [currently] work for May Golan the ‘Bibist,'” referencing her support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The minister and her associates are suspected of fraud, misusing public funds for private purposes, creating fictitious positions in the Social Equality Ministry and concealing sources of funding. According to police, this was done through the use of NGOs and government systems as a “tool for illegally extracting funds.”