Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly being investigated for bribery, fraud

Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has approved a criminal investigation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Channel 10 news reports.

Within the next few days, Netanyahu will be called in for police questioning over two separate cases, Channel 10 says. The report states that a secret inquiry of Netanyahu was started almost nine months ago, and police recently received documents that led them to request Mandelblit open a full criminal investigation into Netanyahu over bribe-taking and aggravated fraud. A Justice Ministry spokeswoman declined to comment.

Several other possible scandals are swirling around Netanyahu — the state prosecutor's office is reportedly looking into allegations he accepted about $1.1 million in 2009 from a French tycoon later accused of fraud, and earlier this month, there were calls for an investigation into Netanyahu's role in a Defense Ministry deal to buy submarines from a Germany company partly owned by the Iranian government that has ties to Netanyahu's lawyer.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.