American businessman to Channel 10: Barak's wife, Preil, put him in contact with Israeli VIPs.
By JPOST.COM STAFFbarak 224.88 ap(photo credit: )
American businessman David Fisher denied on Monday that the services rendered by Tauris, a company founded and run by the wife of Defense Minister Ehud Barak, had helped him exploit the connections of the minister for business purposes, Channel 10 reported.
Channel 10 exposed the existence of the company on Sunday when they reported that Nili Preil (Barak's wife) had established the consulting firm just a few months ago.
According to the documents published the next day by Yediot Aharonot, Tauris helped companies, funds and families interested in investing in Israel gain access to leading "Israeli businesses and trend-setters."
The documents went on to detail the financial relationship between the company and its clients, stating that the base consulting fee was $30,000, but could go up depending on whether or not the business ventures of the clients bore fruit.
On Monday, Fisher denied the claim that the company had put him in touch with Barak, or that the defense minister had helped him with his business ventures. He said that he had hired the services of Preil's company so he could meet other people involved in businesses that he had been researching, and that Barak was in no way part of this initiative.
When asked why a man with his connections would need to hire a company such as Tauris, he said that despite his success, he was not connected in Israel, and this was "why [he] spoke to Nili."
The Channel 10 reporter noted however that a few days prior to his conversation with Fisher, he had spoken to Preil, who had at that time denied that Fisher was even a client of the company.
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