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Sara Netanyahu Charged With Fraud in Meal Expenses Scandal

Israeli prime minister’s wife indicted.

Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was indicted Thursday on charges of fraud that involves meal expenses at the prime minister's residence. According to a draft of the indictment, Netanyahu instructed staff at the residence in Jerusalem to order meals worth a total of 360,000 shekels ($99,000) from gourmet restaurants. Rules prohibit the residence from ordering meals from outside when there’s a cook on its staff. Investigators say Netanyahu ordered that the employment of a cook at the residence be kept secret, and that she was aware that ordering meals for the residence was a violation of the rules. When Leah Rabin was due to be indicted in 1977, then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin resigned from office because of his wife’s scandal; the Jerusalem Post reports that Benjamin Netanyahu is not considering the same move.