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Suspected "criminal behavior" in corruption affair involved PM Netanyahu: official report

Xinhua, May 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Israel's State Comptroller said on Tuesday that the conduct of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his associates in a year-long double-billing of flight tickets affair possibly raises "suspicion of criminal behavior."

The State Comptroller's office, the government's official watchdog, released Tuesday a report on the so-called "Bibi-Tours Affairs." The affair pertains to alleged external finances and double-billing of overseas trips of Netanyahu and his family when Netanyahu was finance minister and member of the parliament in the early 2000's.

According to the report, Netanyahu and his family allegedly received hundreds of thousands of shekels (tens of thousands of U.S. dollars) from tycoons and public bodies to finance visits to the U.S. and Europe.

The police launched an investigation into allegation in 2013 but no indictments have ever been made.

In his recent report, State Comptroller Yosehp Shapira accused the former Attorney General Yehuda Weinsten and his successor Avichai Mandelblit of covering up the affair by stalling the investigation.

Michael Ravlo, Netanyahu's family attorney, said ahead of the publication of the report that "there was no fault in the actions of Netanyahu." He said the allegation have been perpetrated by political rivals.

The report was the latest in a string of scandals connected to the prime minister and his wife Sara.

In February, a labor court ruled that Sara Netanyahu abused a former manager of their official residence in Jerusalem. Last July, the Attorney General's Office launched a criminal investigation into suspected "misconducts" at the residences of the prime minister.

It followed another report by the State Comptroller, which found that financial improprieties and excessive spending of public funds were at play in the two houses used by Netanyahu between 2009 and 2013.

According to the report, there has been excessive spending on food, cleaning supplies and makeup, among others, registered to both homes of the prime minister, his official residence in Jerusalem and his private home in the northern town of Caesarea. Endit