Case 1000 witness Hadas Klein continues to testify in the “Illegal Gifts Affair” trial of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a direct request to an aide of billionaire tycoon Arnon Milchan to give Sara Netanyahu any gifts she asked for, short of a free apartment, assuring her it was legal, the aide testified at the Jerusalem District Court public corruption trial on Wednesday.
Milchan’s aide, Hadas Klein said, “Mr. Netanyahu called me from his office, I said to him that I had been [unfairly] hit with threatening screams [by Sara Netanyahu] and that I had received a very difficult call over something where I had done nothing wrong. He said to me that I just did not understand,” and that Klein should give Sara all of the cigars and champagne she wanted because they had gotten it approved by a legal adviser.
Sick giving “gifts” to Netanyahu
This all played out as Milchan had gotten sick of the years of required “gifts” and told her to tell Sara that they would need to stop giving the gifts or reduce the volume because they were getting suspicious questions from their accountant about the legality.
“Mr. Netanyahu called me from his office, I said to him that I had been [unfairly] hit with threatening screams [by Sara Netanyahu].”
Hadas Klein
Sara pushed back and eventually allegedly took out her anger on Klein, who then threatened to resign from working for Milchan after having worked for him for three decades.
Milchan eventually assured Klein that she was valued and that Sara was really mad at him regarding delays in the gifts and not at her.
“Illegal Gifts Affair”
Klein was testifying for the second straight day as part of the hearing in Case 1,000 – the “Illegal Gifts Affair” – against the former prime minister. Klein’s testimony marks a transition away from media bribery in Case 4,000 (the “Bezeq-Walla Affair”) which has dominated the trial since witnesses started testifying a year ago.
In the same hearing, Klein testified how Milchan was requesting advice from another tycoon billionaire ally of Netanyahu, Sheldon Adelson, on how to procure the specific kinds of cigars that Netanyahu wanted, but at a lower cost.
Adelson died during the probe into Netanyahu, but before he passed away, he testified to police about Case 2000, the Yediot Ahronot-Yisrael Hayom Affair.
The indictment in Case 1000 is based on the vague and hard-to-define breach of trust charge.
Netanyahu allegedly received NIS 267,254 ($75,800) in cigars and NIS 184,448 ($52,300) worth of champagne from billionaire Milchan between 2011 and 2016. Sara Netanyahu allegedly received NIS 10,900 ($3,100) worth of jewelry from him in the same time period.
He and his family also received another NIS 229,174 ($65,000) in champagne and cigars from Milchan’s associate, Australian billionaire James Packer, between 2014 and 2016.