Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges and pay a $15,000 fine rather than go to court on charges of fraud and breach of trust.
Sara Netanyahu struck the plea deal with the Israeli Justice Ministry on Wednesday. She will plead guilty to exploiting the mistake of another. In turn, she will avoid trial on more serious charges related to a case involving nearly $100,000 worth of catering to the prime minister’s official residence, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The plea deal comes as the prime minister is facing his own set of charges for breach of trust, bribery, and fraud. The prime minister and his wife have denounced the charges brought against them and called the investigations witch hunts.
The Israeli officials began investigating Sara Netanyahu after she expensed about $97,000 worth of catering between 2010 and 2013, even though the Israeli government pays for a private chef for the Netanyahu family. Netanyahu maintains that the catering charges, sometimes as much as $7,000 for a single bill, were always for official events such as state dinners and parties for foreign dignitaries.
The prime minister is facing broader political trouble outside the corruption charges. The prime minister failed to pull together a coalition government by a midnight deadline, triggering a new election to take place in the fall around the same time an indictment may come from the charges.
