Simona Weinglass, The Times of Israel
Image from article, with caption: Arnaud Mimran (R) arrives flanked by his lawyer Jean-Marc Fedida (L), at the Paris courthouse, on May 25, 2016, to attend his trial in the case of the value-added tax (VAT) fraud on carbon tax amounting to 238 million euros.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday reiterated his rejection of the allegation that he received €1 million in campaign funding from Arnaud Mimran, but acknowledged for the first time that he had received a smaller sum from the accused French fraudster.
“The claim that Arnaud Mimran contributed €1 million to Mr. Netanyahu’s election campaign is a lie without any foundation. There was no contribution by Mimran to an election campaign of Netanyahu,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement, a day after the attorney general said he would conduct an initial probe into the alleged illicit donation.
“In August 2001 when Netanyahu was a private citizen, Mimran donated $40,000 to a fund for Mr. Netanyahu’s public activity, which included many media appearances and public diplomacy campaigns abroad on behalf of the State of Israel, and which was conducted in accordance with the law.”
During his trial in France, Mimran said he had given €1 million ($1.1 million) in campaign contributions to Netanyahu in 2001, when the Israeli leader was not in public office. ...
In a statement on June 5, the Prime Minister’s Office accused Mimran of committing another fraud by making a false claim about Netanyahu. ...
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