Sara Netanyahu agrees to plea deal in catering affair
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, agreed to a plea bargain on Wednesday in a fraud case against her and will be fined NIS 55,000 (US$15,000).
Photo by Hillel Maeir/TPS on June 21, 2018
The state prosecution had originally charged her with fraud under aggravated circumstances and breach of public trust, for which she faced a potential penalty of NIS 359,000 ($99,000).
According to the indictment, Netanyahu and then-deputy director of the Prime Minister’s Residence Ezra Seidoff had misrepresented the fact that a chef was employed at the Prime Minister’s Residence in an effort to avail herself of a regulation entitling her to order prepared food for the residence in the event that a chef was not employed.
Prosecutors argued that Netanyahu ordered hundreds of prepared meals—to the tune of NIS 359,000—between September 2010 and March 2013, and that Seidoff falsified invoices to chefs in 15 instances to circumvent budget limits.
As part of the plea deal, she will admit to intentionally making use of another’s error, but not to defrauding the state.
The deal must be accepted by the court before it can be finalized.
JNS
