For almost 4 years, the State Comptroller has been investigating Benjamin Netanyahu's and his family's trips abroad at the expense of foreign entities. 4 years!
These are flights that were carried out while Netanyahu served as Finance Minister in Sharon's government. The first draft was completed almost two and a half years ago, but to this day the report has not been published (the auditor has a reason/excuse for part of the period - the legal advisor asked me not to promote it).
Here are a few paragraphs from that draft.
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Preface - It is possible, of course, that the draft has changed. It is possible that Netanyahu has really great explanations for each trip. From my familiarity with the material, it is not very likely, but the only person who is supposed to know, the State Comptroller, Yosef Shapira, does not seem like a figure who is truly determined to bring us the truth in the affair.
So here are some quotes from that loaded draft:
""(Mr. Netanyahu's - R.D.) children are financed on some of their flights by foreign entities. There were also several flights where Mr. Netanyahu was financed by one foreign entity while at the same time his wife and assistants were financed by another foreign entity (in other words, double financing - R.D.). Not the same entity that financed Netanyahu's flight without Mrs. Netanyahu giving any consideration to the foreign organization that finances them. In the opinion of the audit, some of these funds amount to tens of thousands of dollars due to the acceptance of a prohibited gift and in some cases even a violation of moral purity.".
It is important to note that these are not things that are said in vain.
The draft cited here was written after an investigation lasting over a year and a half by the State Comptroller's Office, which involved a team including Rina Kramp, Miri Weiss, and also a senior and skilled researcher like Nachum Levy.
It is not for nothing that Mr. Netanyahu and his lawyer, David Shimron, worked hard (and succeeded) to remove Nachum Levy from his position and thwart the investigation. Likud senior figures Yariv Levin, Gilad Erdan, and Benny Begin participated in this effort, by the way. They met with the advisor to ensure that the flights of more politicians were investigated (they were investigated, the report was released a long time ago and some dirt was found in the corners. Nothing like Netanyahu's flights), and along the way they also mentioned that it was unfair for Levi to investigate this because he had previously investigated Netanyahu in the Amadi and the gifts affair.
Here are some examples of these harsh words given in the draft:
The central figure in 'Friends of the Likud in the US' is Ari Haro, who has advanced to significant positions around Netanyahu in recent years.
For those who didn't understand, according to this finding, the Ministry of Finance allegedly paid for Netanyahu's children's room abroad. Equally interesting, the assistant to the Minister of Finance traveled to the Netherlands at the expense of the state coffers just to serve as a babysitter for Netanyahu's children on the flight (at that time they were still relatively young). This assistant has since been promoted to the position of deputy director general of the Prime Minister's Office.
Simply put, they funded Tzipi Navon twice and suspect that they used the excess to pay for Sara Netanyahu's ticket.
In that draft, more flights were mentioned and it was written as follows: ""In all of the above flights, in the opinion of the audit, there is suspicion of receiving a prohibited gift, a conflict of interest, and even suspicion of a violation of moral integrity in that Mr. Netanyahu, while Minister of Finance, his wife, and his aides were financed in amounts of thousands of dollars by foreign entities and businessmen.".
Here is the summary in that draft regarding Sara Netanyahu's flights, while Netanyahu was Minister of Finance:
During Mr. Netanyahu's tenure as Finance Minister, his wife accompanied him on most of his trips abroad. Most of the minister's wife's trips were funded by foreign entities, totaling over $50,000 for flights alone (here is a breakdown of the funders, trip by trip: Jacob Schuster, the Romanian government, the Bund, Likud friends in the US, EFR, AEI, Bonds, Bonds, Yehuda Weingarten, Bonds, Ugandan government, Bonds – R.D.)…The funding provided by a foreign entity for the trip of the minister's wife who accompanies him on his trips may embody an element of a benefit. Because of this, the minister had to contact the Gifts Committee. From the above it appears (October 2004) that double funding was allegedly provided for the trip of the then director of the bureau, and on the other hand it is not clear who financed Mrs. Netanyahu's flight. In the aforementioned situation, there is concern that Mrs. Netanyahu was actually financed by Bonds.".
In the same draft, the Comptroller's Office referred to the additional costs that these trips by the Minister of Finance imposed on the public purse:
""The minister's trip, although financed by a foreign entity, in some cases required the Ministry of Finance budget to incur additional expenses of tens of thousands of shekels beyond the cost financed by the foreign entity for escorts and security guards. Below are examples: Romania $1,644, Great Britain $4,800, USA 42,000 shekels.""
Here is the draft's numerical summary of how Finance Minister Netanyahu flew abroad. Most of the trips were funded by a foreign entity.
""The data in the table shows that during his time as Minister Netanyahu, Mr. Netanyahu flew 15 trips in his capacity, according to reports to the Government Secretariat. Only 6.5 of them were financed by the Minister of Finance and the remaining 57% were financed by a foreign entity. 1.5 trips were financed by foreign governments. 2 trips, 14% were financed by Jewish organizations, 4 trips were financed by the Bonds, not including trips for which the Bonds financed the stay expenses and one trip was financed by another international organization.
""The audit found no written requests from Mr. Netanyahu that were forwarded to the government or the Prime Minister for official travel... According to the State Comptroller's Office, proper administration requires that a minister's travel record be in writing and include the aforementioned details.
""The State Comptroller's Office believes that Mr. Netanyahu should have applied to the committee for permits prior to his foreign-funded trips... Mr. Netanyahu's trips were sometimes financed by various entities and businessmen (a number of examples were listed here. I omit them - R.D.)... In the opinion of the State Comptroller's Office, in view of the various parties that financed Mr. Netanyahu's trips abroad, including various entities and private individuals with various types of connections to the then Minister of Finance and/or the Israeli economy, and in view of the aforementioned High Court ruling... the Minister of Finance should have acted with extreme caution and legally examined the possibility of the trips being financed by foreign funds before they were implemented.".
""In the opinion of the State Comptroller's Office, this fundraising procedure is considered sponsorship of an event... There is concern that the funding of the travel of the Minister of Finance and his entourage by the Bonds placed him in a conflict of interest. Furthermore, during his term in office, Yehoshua Mazza served as the president of the Bonds and was involved in granting approvals for Netanyahu's flights financed by the Bonds...""
And here is the summary of the entire draft:
""The audit revealed that the foreign-funded trips of Mr. Netanyahu and his family during his tenure as Finance Minister in some cases exceeded the rules of proper administration... Various parties financed Mr. Netanyahu's trips abroad, including various entities and private individuals with various types of connections to the then Finance Minister and/or the Israeli economy.
""This funding was done without a legal review of the possibility of a conflict of interest... The totality of the findings described above, in terms of their severity, quantity and scope, reflects a difficult picture indicating the receipt of benefits by Mr. Netanyahu that amounts to a concern for harm to moral purity.".
About a week ago, the Netanyahu family responded to a petition to the High Court of Justice filed by Mickey Rosenthal regarding "Bibi Tours." Among other things, the response claimed that the investigations conducted into this story found no fault in Mr. Netanyahu's actions.
They found no flaw? This draft report, which was not hastily prepared to say the least, sounds like a clear invitation to a criminal investigation.
More than that, this draft explains the determined and great struggle that Netanyahu waged against the Bibi Torres story.
If the Attorney General had opened an investigation in March 2011, when this story was published, many of the acts described in this draft would not have become obsolete. The endless meddling of Yehuda Weinstein on the one hand and Yosef Shapira on the other, made it impossible to open an investigation here.
This also explains perfectly why it is so important for Attorney Shimron to delay the publication of this report until after the elections. Unfortunately, the State Comptroller apparently does not think that it is very important for the public to be exposed to this report before the elections.
• Published on Raviv Drucker's blog: http://drucker10.net
