Allegations in the case known as 4000 that Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Bezeq telecom company owner Shaul Elovitch collaborated to serve their mutual interests are backed up by new evidence the Israel securities authority recently obtained.
This evidence supports the claim brought in an expose by Haaretz that the Bezeq-controlled Walla news site provided Netanyahu with coverage biased in his favor.
The information also shows that another of Netanyahu’s confidants whose name has not been mentioned in connection with this investigation so far is also involved. Although the authority has had this information for months neither have its chairman Shmuel Hauser and his team questioned the confidant nor have the attorney general and state prosecutor instructed to open an investigation into the man’s doings.
According to Haaretz the authority obtained the latest evidence while probing the Bezeq corruption case.
A source familiar with the details told Haaretz several weeks ago that the authority was planning to look into the evidence. However this week the authority announced it had completed its investigation recommending to indict Elovitch Bezeq CEO Stella Handler and other senior company executives as well as director general of the communications ministry Shlomo Filber Netanyahu’s crony.
Netanyahu who until the beginning of the year served as communications minister as well fired the previous director general Avi Berger and appointed Filber in his place in May 2015 two days after the cabinet had been sworn in the newspaper noted on its website on Friday.
Haaretz quoted the securities authority as saying in a statement that the investigation into the case produced evidence of “ongoing deliberate fraud activity” on Filber’s part to advance Bezeq’s interests among other things by leaking confidential documents to company executives.
The authority closed the investigation without inquiring into the evidence regarding Netanyahu and without answering the key question: What was Filber’s motive in using his position systematically to advance Bezeq’s and Elovitch’s interests? Law enforcement sources said closing the case did not mean they had stopped dealing with the evidence adding that the issue remained under examination.
Haaretz’s expose from October 2015 showed how the popular news site Walla controlled by Bezeq shielded Netanyahu and especially his wife Sara.
The site’s management put pressure on the editorial staff to publish public relations (PR) reports in favor of Netanyahu’s wife which were dictated by people close to Netanyahu including his then-spokesman Nir Hefetz. Unfavorable reports about the couple were censored and headlines that could harm their image were changed.
Walla CEO Ilan Yeshua made it clear on numerous occasions that by publishing biased coverage the site was carrying out Elovitch’s policy and linked the site’s lenient treatment of the Netanyahus to government decisions pertaining to Bezeq.
Indeed Netanyahu moved at the time to promote Elovitch’s extensive businesses. Netanyahu described his relationship with Elovitch as “a friendship of many years.”
Shortly after entering the communications ministry Netanyahu approved the merger between Bezeq and the Yes satellite company which benefitted Elovitch.
An expose published in TheMarker on Thursday reveals how the deal was approved with unusual swiftness and in an irregular process despite the objection of communications ministry officials. Filber who met Elovitch on his first day in office personally advanced the merger. When his deputy director general refused to sign an opinion approving the deal Filber commissioned an external company to produce the desired opinion.
The Cable and Satellite approved the deal unanimously and on the very same day Netanyahu gave it the go ahead.
In appointing himself communications minister he failed to mention his ties to Elovich or to his close friend Arnon Milchan one of Channel 10’s owners who allegedly gave Netanyahu hundreds of thousands of shekels worth of gifts to the State Comptroller.
Following Haaretz’s report Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit forbade Netanyahu in June last year to deal with any matter associated with Bezeq.
