Yediot Ahronot publisher Arnon Mozes is being sued by the newspaper’s director for misappropriating company funds to pay for his legal defense in Case 2000.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Yediot Ahronot publisher Arnon Mozes has been sued by the Israeli newspaper’s director for misappropriating company funds to pay for his legal defense in Case 2000, reported Israel Hayom on Wednesday.

Mozes and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are charged with fraud, breach of trust, and bribery in Case 2000.

Prosecutors allege that Netanyahu and Mozes engaged in an illegal quid pro quo deal, in which Netanyahu would push for legislation that would hurt Yediot Ahronot’s rival newspaper Israel Hayom in exchange for positive press coverage from Yediot Ahronot.

Yediot Ahronot’s director David Lieber filed the suit in Tel Aviv District Court, asking the court to find that Mozes violated his fiduciary duty to the newspaper by appropriating company funds to finance his personal legal expenses, including defense attorneys, in his ongoing criminal trial.

The lawsuit alleges that Mozes has already used more than 1.35 million shekels from Yediot Ahronot company funds to pay his attorneys’ fees.

The lawsuit claims that while Mozes’ contract does have an indemnification clause that allows Yediot Ahronot to pay for an employee’s legal expenses, it is only valid in cases where “legal action is due to an act the employee has taken in his working capacity at the company.”

Lieber’s lawyers wrote, ’“In this case, Mr. Mozes’s actions were not carried out in his work capacity, and they are of a very serious criminal nature.”

“According to the indictment, whether convicted or not, Mr. Mozes wanted to improve the value of the property he owned (and in fact hurt his main competitor, Israel Hayom), and even offered to sell positive coverage for that purpose.”

The lawsuit states that “the Company’s Board of Directors did not authorize Mr. Moses to offer bribes and/or sell positive coverage – nor authorize him to close any ‘deal’ with any party for the purpose of harming the newspaper’s principal competitor.”

Yediot Ahronot’s lawyers write that just one month before Case 2000 went public in late 2016, Mozes sought a new 12-year employment contract, despite having three years left on his contract at the time.

Mozes requested absolute control over the newspaper and its financial dealings for no less than an additional 12 years.

“The board was confused by Mozes’s request, as it was very sudden and made at an odd time, with three years left on his existing agreement.”

Mozes has not yet filed a defense letter.

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Channel 13 released the recordings on Saturday evening, just as the Attorney General’s office is concluding its discussions about whether to indict the prime minister.

By World Israel News Staff

Dominating today’s news in Israel are secret recordings of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and newspaper publisher Arnon Mozes of Yediot Ahronot. The recordings were broadcast on Channel 13’s Hamakor news program on Saturday night.

The recordings made in the course of two phone conversations that took place in 2014, Netanyahu and Mozes discuss making a deal in which Netanyahu will receive favorable coverage in Yediot Ahronot in return for advancing a law to hurt Yediot‘s main rival, Israel Hayom.

The recordings are part of Case 2000, in which Netanyahu faces indictment for fraud and breach of trust. Mozes also faces possible criminal charges. They’ve been made public just as the Attorney General’s Office brings to a close its deliberations on whether to indict the prime minister.

The conversations were taped by Ari Harow, a former Netanyahu aide who has turned state witness.

Netanyahu appears to agree to Mozes’s request to push through a law that would make it harder for hurt Yediot‘s competitor.

“We can legislate this, that’s all,” Netanyahu says. When Mozes asks which committee would take responsibility for the anti-Israel Hayom bill, Netanyahu replies, “We’ll set up a special committee.”

Netanyahu also asks that Mozes reduce Yediot‘s antagonism toward him from “9 1/2 to 7 1/2.”

Mozes asks Netanyahu to recommend a opinion writer who would write pieces favorable to Netanyahu.

Complaining about the negative coverage of one Yediot writer in particular, Netanyahu said, “You are forcing me to fight you. If you’re making your life’s mission to knock me down, my life’s mission is to fight you.”

Netanyahu’s office defended the prime minister following the leaked recordings, saying he never had any intention of making a deal with Mozes. The statement also said that the prime minister “was the only one who worked against the [Israel Hayom] law and dispersed the Knesset and blocked it and won in exchange hostile coverage from [Arnon] Mozes.”

Recognizing the damage the recordings may do to the prime minister, “This evening you brought a biased, criminal leak with the goal of harming Prime Minister Netanyahu and diverting [public] attention from the stink of biased-enforcement,” coming from the lack of interest in former Labor MK Eytan Cabel’s testimony. Cabel advanced the Israel Hayom bill.

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