Netanyahu faces corruption probe

Israel’s attorney general has ordered a criminal investigation into allegations of corruption by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The attorney general has instructed a review of possibly non-reported millions in funds transferred by French fraudster Arnaud Mimran to Netanyahu during the 2009 elections, Israel’s Channel 10 said.

Mimran testified at a Paris court last month that he gave one million euros to Netanyahu’s election campaign.

“I financed him [Netanyahu] to the tune of about one million euros,” he said at the time.

The Israeli prime minister’s office called the claim a lie, saying Netanyahu did not receive any prohibited donation from Mimran.

Mimran is currently on trial in France for his alleged role in the massive fraud involving the sale of carbon credits in a case referred to in France as the “heist of the century.”

A joint investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz and the French website Mediapart published in April showed that Mimran financed vacations for Netanyahu and his family in the Alps and on the French Riviera.

The report said since the early 2000s, the Mimran family had loaned Netanyahu a spacious apartment on Avenue Victor Hugo, in the heart of Paris’ 16th Arrondissement.