Illicit donation allegations 'false and overblown,' says PM's attorney

"All the allegations against [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and were then exaggerated by the media will soon emerge as baseless and unfounded," the prime minister's attorney David Shimron declared Monday, after reports suggested that Netanyahu had received an illicit campaign donation from French billionaire Arnaud Mimran.

The French businessman, who is currently on trial in France on massive fraud charges, claimed in an interview that he had deposited 170,000 euros into Netanyahu's private account -- a claim that has been refuted by the prime minister's office.

"As someone who handled Mr. Netanyahu's public activity fund when he was a private citizen, I can report that the exact sum donated by Mimran was $40,000," Shimron said. "The sum was deposited in the fund's account by credit transfer on Aug. 24, 2001. Contrary to the allegations, no other sum was deposited in the public fund, which was used to finance Netanyahu's pro-Israel public diplomacy activity abroad. No sum of money was deposited into Netanyahu's private account and no sum of money was donated to any of Mr. Netanyahu's campaigns."

The alleged link between Mimran and Netanyahu was first suggested in a collaborative expose compiled by Israeli newspaper Haaretz and French investigative site Mediapart.

According to Shimron, Haaretz was notified of the fact that the money was deposited in a public fund rather than Netanyahu's private account "seven weeks ago, on Apr. 14, 2016, following an in-depth investigation on our part. The fund was managed by me in strict accordance with the law and was overseen by an accountant."

Shimron described the recent reports as "another attempt to hurt the prime minister by making false allegations and exaggerating them in the media. This overblown balloon will soon be deflated."

Shimron's remarks came after Mimran, who is facing charges in what France has called the fraud trial of the century, addressed the allegations on Israel's Channel 10 news.

In the interview, Mimran repeated the claim that he had transferred funds to the prime minister. The Prime Minister's Office explained that Mimran had indeed donated $40,000 to the public fund, but the businessman insisted that he had deposited 170,000 euros in Netanyahu's private account. Mimran clarified in the interview that, contrary to reports, he never testified to having donated 1 million euros to Netanyahu.

"First of all, I never said 1 million euros. I said '1 million.' This was in 2001, so it was 1 million French francs -- 170,000 euros," Mimran told Channel 10 news. "Second, I did a wire [transfer] to Mr. Netanyahu but there was a confusion. The wire was in 2001 and I came to celebrate when he [Netanyahu] won [the general election] in 2009. It had nothing to do with the wire. It was eight years later."

In the interview, Mimran stressed that he had deposited the money into Netanyahu's private account. "The amount that I sent is official," Mimran said. "He can check in his account. He has not done anything that he can hide or that I can hide."

Before the interview aired, however, the Prime Minister's Office issued an official statement on the issue, detailing a version that differs from Mimran's. "In August 2001, when Netanyahu was a private citizen and not practicing politics, Mimran donated $40,000 to Mr. Netanyahu's public activity fund," the statement said.

According to the statement, the activity financed by the fund included "media appearances and many pro-Israel public diplomacy trips abroad."

In addition, the Prime Minister's Office said that "the claim that Arnaud Mimran donated a million euros to Netanyahu's election campaign is an outright lie. There was never any donation made by Mimran to any of Netanyahu's election campaigns."

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