Netanyahu rejects new corruption probe as ‘nonsense’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed as “nonsense” a police investigation into suspicions that he received illegal funding, and accused the media of reporting about corruption probes against him whenever he goes abroad.

“It is something that keeps repeating itself,” he told journalists late Monday. “Every time I make a historic visit abroad we hear about investigations. It’s nonsense.”

Netanyahu was speaking from Africa where he is on an official visit.

Earlier, Channel 2 reported that the Israel Police was investigating Netanyahu over possibly illegal contributions he may have accepted from foreign businessmen during his current run as prime minister.

The Israel Police probe, first reported in early June, has become an “investigation in every sense” and has involved investigators abroad, the report said. Additional details about the case, however, still remain shrouded in secrecy.

Neither the police nor the attorney general’s office would comment on the details of the investigation. Channel 2 reported last month that it is being conducted with the cooperation of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.

Last month, Mandelblit reportedly instructed employees in the state prosecutor’s office to look into allegations that Netanyahu in 2009 accepted 1 million euros (about $1.1 million) from accused French fraudster Arnaud Mimran.

Mimran is being tried in France for his alleged role in a massive fraud involving the sale of carbon credits in a case referred to in France as the “heist of the century.”

Netanyahu’s office denied that the prime minister had received an illegal donation, and accused Mimran of trying to distract attention from his own case.

In May, Israel’s state comptroller issued a critical report on Netanyahu’s foreign trips, some with his wife and children, from 2003 to 2005 when he was finance minister.

The attorney general said he would launch an immediate inspection of the allegations “in a direct and professional manner.”