Jerusalem:Â Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, has been charged with defrauding the Israeli government of close to $US100,000 ($135,000) in improper expenses.
The indictment alleges the PM’s wife hired some of Jerusalem’s best-known chefs to cater hundreds of private meals while covering up the fact that the prime minister’s residence already employed a full-time cook.
Benjamin Netanyahu himself was not named in the indictment, though he is currently the subject of a handful of separate corruption investigations.
The charges announced against Sara Netanyahu include breach of trust, though she does not hold a formal public position, and cover the years 2010 through 2013. Accusing her of “exploiting her status as the wife of the prime minister,” prosecutors said Sara Netanyahu and a top aide colluded in a “planned, ongoing and systematic” scheme both to break government rules and to prevent state accountants from learning of her trespasses.
Read the article by David M. Halbfinger in The Sydney Morning Herald.