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In turn The Office of the State Comptroller said, “The Office of the State Comptroller received information of this kind and sent it to the Attorney General because of its nature.”
This is not the first time that Mr. Netanyahu has been accused of misusing public funds or items for his own personal benefit. After he lost his bid for election in 1999, Israeli police conducted a search of his Jerusalem apartment in response to allegations that Netanyahu and his wife Sara took various items from the Prime Minister’s Residence, including official gifts from foreign dignitaries considered the property of the nation, when they moved out.
Netanyahu was also investigated for taking bribes when he was in office the first time. The Israeli police recommended that he be formally indicted for accepting free services from a private contractor who had bid for government contracts. But in September of 2000, then Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein dropped the charges because he felt that there was insufficient evidence to go to trial.
Most recently, a storm of criticism surrounded the Prime Minister when it was revealed that the budget for the living expenses at his residence in 2012 had ballooned to over $900, 000, in addition to more than $90, 000 on his Caesarea home. The Israeli public was angered to hear that expenses included such frivolous things as the delivery of ice cream from a local Jerusalem parlor. But the furor subsided when the expenses were cut in half the following year.
There was yet another controversy when it was revealed this past January that Netanyahu held a bank account in the foreign tax haven of Jersey over a decade ago.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has been listed as one of Israel’s wealthiest politicians with a net worth of more than $45 million.
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