Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, signed a plea bargain agreement with prosecutors Wednesday morning, agreeing to pay 55,000 shekels ($15,000) for food ordered to the Prime Minister’s Residence.
Under the deal, Mrs. Netanyahu will plead guilty to taking advantage of an error – a relatively minor offense – in exchange for the prosecution dropping fraud charges included in the original indictment.
A revised indictment will be filed Thursday according to the agreement.
As part of the deal, Mrs. Netanyahu will pay the state 55,000 shekels ($15,000) – including 45,000 shekels in money returned for catering expenses charged to the state, and 10,000 shekels in fines.
In the original June 2018 indictment, Sara Netanyahu was accused of intentionally misrepresenting the presence of the chef of the Prime Minister’s Residence on multiple occasions from 2010 to 2013, thus enabling her to order catered food to the residence. The Prime Minister and his family is required to use the services of the chef – and not catering services – when the chef is on site.
The total cost of the hundreds of catered meals topped 350,000 shekels, or close to $100,000.