Attorney General Mandelblit: the loan received by Netanyahu from his cousin is a prohibited gift

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit informed the High Court that the loan received by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from his cousin, the American businessman Natan Milikovsky, in the amount of $ 300,000, is a prohibited gift. This is after the ombudsman ruled two years ago that this is a gift that requires the approval of the permits committee. The ombudsman explains the change in position in exposing the business ties between Netanyahu and Milikowski in the stock affair, which the ombudsman decided to close in October.
A decision published on Tuesday evening in response to a petition by the Movement for Quality of Government states that "Milikovsky is indeed a relative and friend of Respondent 1 (Netanyahu - YF) ... on the basis of this figure ... In the Gifts Act. ”However, the Attorney General writes that the stock affair shed further light on the nature of the relationship between the two, which necessitates a re-examination of the 2018 base assumptions.
In July last year, the Permits Committee determined that Netanyahu must return $ 30,000 out of the $ 300,000 he received from Milikowski, since $ 270,000 was used for the legal protection of Prime Minister Sarah Netanyahu's wife.
Following the disclosure of the stock affair, Mandelblit opened an investigation into whether the funds rose to suspicion of bribery and breach of trust, but this investigation was closed last year. In the long statement delivered this evening by the ombudsman, he explains that as far as the bribery offense is concerned, no real evidentiary indication was found to establish suspicion, and that there are significant difficulties due to the obsolescence of the events.
Milikowski himself explained his version of the money, which was intended for the Netanyahu couple's legal protection in their investigations, and in his testimony to the police in the 1000 case he said that his financial support for Netanyahu was a continuation of a long tradition, and he continues his father's path with family financial support.
In response tonight, it was stated that while the first examination of the receipt of funds in 2018 examined the family connection and close relationship between the two cousins, "later on - based on the analysis of the infrastructure collected in the examination - it emerged that the financial assistance from Milikowski was given only to the prime minister, not his brother. The investigation revealed that even for Mr. Milikovsky's approach, the very fact that Netanyahu had a public office was a justification for providing financial assistance on his part, specifically for Netanyahu. "
That is, the fact that Milikowski financially supported only Netanyahu and not his brother indicates that the support is related to Netanyahu's public role and not the family connection.
The Likud responded: "Is Mandelblit interfering in the election again? In the previous election, Mandelblit filed a tailor-made indictment against the prime minister, and in this election he is flaking his legal position while violating the prime minister's defense, just because the cases he seized against him are limited. In order to overthrow a strong prime minister from the right. "
The Movement for Quality of Government responded: "An investigation must be opened immediately. Once again, the Prime Minister was exposed in his depravity and once again we discovered that only an in-depth investigation floods the area with prohibited conduct. The same prime minister who said he was receiving money from a relative was exposed when he received a forbidden gift. "" Only two years after we first applied, the ombudsman accepts our position. One case in which funds are flowing to the prime minister is prohibited. "