Australian billionaire James Packer paid at least $1.25 million – 1.78 million Australian dollars or 3.85 million shekels – to the law firm of Amit Hadad, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attorney, the Australian newspaper The Age reported Monday.
Packer is also a witness in Netanyahu’s corruption trial, in which Hadad represents the prime minister.
The investigation, published on the eve of Israel’s election, uncovered a trail of monthly bank transfers of $50,000 over the past two years, from a bank account controlled by Packer’s company to the account of the law firm representing Netanyahu.
On the same day the investigation was published, Hadad filed a motion on behalf of Netanyahu’s defense team requesting that Packer and two of his employees be allowed to testify from abroad, with their testimony broadcast by video link to the judges in Israel.
According to the investigation, the first monthly payment was made on September 23, 2024, from a Citibank account belonging to Packer’s legal firm to an account held by Hadad, Roth, Shenhar at Mizrahi Tefahot Bank. A source familiar with the details reportedly said the payments urgently needed to be investigated to determine whether Netanyahu had received an undisclosed benefit from Packer.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad in the Jerusalem District Court, earlier this week. Credit: Itay Cohen
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyer Amit Hadad in the Jerusalem District Court, earlier this week. Credit: Itay Cohen
Packer insisted that the bank transfers to Netanyahu’s lawyers were payments for work carried out on his behalf, including “deal finding” in Israel, where he has business interests, and that they were unrelated to Netanyahu’s trial.
The Australian newspaper also reported that a Netanyahu spokesperson asked for comment replied: “I couldn’t give a monkey’s about your questions. We are very busy. We have an election on right now.”
Packer did not deny making the monthly payments but declined to comment. Hadad also declined to comment.
Packer’s representatives responded that the law firm represents him in his “personal and business affairs.” “Any claim that I paid even a single cent toward the legal defense of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is false. Anyone who claims otherwise risks being sued.”
Packer was expected to testify as a key prosecution witness in Netanyahu’s corruption trial in Case 1000, in which he and businessman Arnon Milchan are alleged to have provided Netanyahu and his wife with gifts and other benefits worth hundreds of thousands of shekels.
Packer gave a statement to police during the investigation, but in February 2024, prosecutors announced that they would not call him to testify at the trial. During the phase of the trial devoted to prosecution witnesses, prosecutors were unable to contact Packer to arrange for him to travel to Israel.
Meanwhile, attorney Amit Hadad filed a motion on Netanyahu’s behalf Monday requesting that Packer and two of his employees, Ben Tilley and Guy Jolland, be questioned abroad. The defense requested that their testimony be broadcast by video link to the judges in Jerusalem, as was the testimony given by Arnon Milchan from England during the trial.
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Hadas Klein, a witness for the prosecution in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, in Tel Aviv, in 2025. Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
Hadas Klein, a witness for the prosecution in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, in Tel Aviv, in 2025. Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
During the cross-examination of Hadas Klein, Packer’s former personal assistant in Israel, the defense submitted letters from Tilley and Jolland challenging her testimony that most of the champagne and cigars purchased for Packer went to Netanyahu and his wife.
In the motion, Hadad stated that he represents Packer in Israel on matters unrelated to Netanyahu’s trial.
In the letters, the two described their visits to Israel between 2013 and 2016, when they were members of Packer’s staff. Tilley testified that he smoked a cigar every evening during each of the 83 days he spent in Israel, as did Ian Morris, another Packer employee.
Jolland described the hospitality at Packer’s properties, including a suite at the Royal Beach Hotel in Tel Aviv and a villa he purchased in Caesarea. He claimed that the properties were always stocked with food and wine for entertaining guests, including a supply of rosé champagne, and that Packer himself regularly drank rosé champagne.
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Hadad is seeking to call Packer, Tilley and Jolland as defense witnesses to challenge the testimony of Klein and driver Yonatan Hasson regarding the quantities of cigars and champagne transferred from Packer to the Netanyahu family.
Hadad explained that the defense has no way to compel the witnesses, who live abroad, to testify in Israel because they refuse to travel there. However, they have indicated that they would comply with any lawful court order issued by the courts in their countries of residence.
He attached a letter written by Jolland on Packer’s behalf, stating that Packer refuses to come to Israel because of the treatment he received from law enforcement authorities.
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Australian billionaire James Packer with Sara Netanyahu at the time of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Washington visit, in 2015. Credit: AFP
Australian billionaire James Packer with Sara Netanyahu at the time of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Washington visit, in 2015. Credit: AFP
Netanyahu had a close personal relationship with Packer, which also involved attempts to advance business and media interests. Packer, who came to Israel in 2013 through businessman Arnon Milchan, grew close to Netanyahu and admired him.
One of the clearest signs of their relationship was Packer’s purchase of a villa next to the Netanyahu family home in Caesarea, after Netanyahu encouraged him to buy it. The Netanyahu family treated the property almost as their own home. Family members had dinner there and sometimes took boxes of cigars and cases of champagne from the house. Netanyahu also regularly swam in his neighbor’s pool.
Packer also developed a friendship with Netanyahu’s son Yair, who frequently stayed at Packer’s properties, including the Royal Beach Hotel, a penthouse at Robert De Niro’s hotel in New York, a villa in the ski resort town of Aspen, Colorado, and a yacht moored in Ibiza.
Testifying at his trial last year, Netanyahu confirmed that Milchan had introduced him to Packer at a dinner. “My impression of him was positive, and I think it was mutual,” Netanyahu said. “We developed an emotional connection. I’m good at reading people, as I always have been, and I could see that he was genuinely someone who, I would say, had no ulterior motives. What he wanted was closeness.”
Netanyahu also claimed that Packer had told him he was the most impressive person he had ever met.
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