US STONEWALLING ON INFO ABOUT NETANYAHU’S STOCK TRADES

Israeli law enforcement officials are having difficulty getting information they’ve requested from their US counterparts regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s buying and selling of shares in a company owned by his cousin, Gidi Weitz wrote for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on June 10, 2020.

The request was made several months ago, but US authorities are dragging their feet in providing the information, which is meant to help Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit decide whether a criminal investigation should be launched. A source familiar with the request to the American authorities said, “There is no evidence that the delay in receiving answers is politically motivated, but it is certainly exceptional and makes one wonder.”

The questions relate to Netanyahu’s sale of the shares in the SeaDrift company, which was owned by his cousin, Nathan Milikowsky. According to documents submitted to the State Comptroller’s Office, in 2010 Netanyahu earned millions of dollars from the sale.

According to a source familiar with the case “the answers from the US are meant to help Mendelblit understand whether in the story of the purchase and sale of the shares there’s a suspicion of criminal violations by Netanyahu, or whether the issue doesn’t warrant an investigation.”