Police sources: Netanyahu falsely invoked billionaire's name | JPost - Aug. 2017 |

Police sources told Channel 2 that in a conversation Netanyahu taped, he offered to help Yediot Aharonot publisher Arnon "Noni" Mozes sell the newspaper in an effort to ease its reports against him. He told Mozes that a potential buyer was Ukrainian-born American-British businessman and philanthropist Sir Leonard "Len" Blavatnik [knighted in 2017 - Oui].

The report said police want to question Blavatnik in their investigation of Case 2000, in which Netanyahu is accused of colluding with Mozes against the pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom so he would receive positive coverage from both papers.

Multiple sources close to Blavatnik said on Sunday that the billionaire was not close to Netanyahu, did not have an opinion on Israeli politics, rarely comes to Israel and would not have been interested in purchasing Yediot Aharonot.

A source said that 10 years ago, Blavatnik was approached about purchasing the Maariv newspaper, which was later bought by Jerusalem Post owner Eli Azur, but Blavatnik decided against the purchase.  "He decided not to enter print journalism," the source said. "He realized that it wasn't a very good investment."

Two years ago, Blavatnik purchased Israeli Channel 10, which has a reputation of being anti-Netanyahu. Blavatnik, Aviv Giladi, and the Recanati family each own one-third of the RGE Group, which ultimately bought Channel 10 and Israel's sports channel.