The Israeli police launched Monday an official investigation with former Mossad director Yossi Cohen, following various allegations against him. This came at the request of Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
The Hebrew Channel 13 reported on Sunday evening that Cohen had received $20,000 gift from Australian billionaire James Packer on the occasion of his daughter's wedding.
Parker’s name has been mentioned in several corruption files involving former Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.
Channel 13 also reported that the police are investigating an additional case in which the former head of the intelligence agency gave confidential information to a flight attendant with whom he had been in close contact for the past two years.
The police confirmed that at the legal level, the case of Cohen is still under examination, and that there will not necessarily be a criminal investigation.
Cohen is considered very close to Netanyahu, who promised him the leadership of the Likud party and the premiership.
He served as Mossad chief, national security adviser, and former deputy head of the spy agency, under Netanyahu’s premiership.
Cohen was also an envoy to Washington and several Arab capitals.
However, the former Mossad chief was subject to criticisms early last month following an interview in which he has signaled that Israel was behind efforts to thwart Iran's nuclear program including blowing up the underground centrifuge facility at Natanz and assassinating top scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
He also gave details about the 2018 Mossad operation that stole Iran's nuclear archive from a Tehran warehouse.
