July 21,2020

Andrew Campbell 

Bar Refaeli was first arrested and questioned in December 2015. In 2016, when Tzipi Refaeli, mother of model Bar Refaeli, was arrested on suspicion of failing to file income tax and having misled the tax assessor of Israel, thus evading income tax from abroad estimated at tens of millions of shekels. 

Later, Israel lower court held a decision that ordered Bar Refaeli to pay taxes on 8 million shekels (US$2.4 million) for earnings abroad in the years 2009-2010. Then, Bar Refaeli appealed to the High Court of Justice in 2019 against the previous lower court decision.

According to statements from the court in Tel Aviv, the 35-year-old Bar Refaeli reached a plea bargain agreement in June of 2020, being sentenced guilty of providing false tax returns while living abroad in order to avoid Israeli taxes on income about $10.2 million.

On July 20, Bar Refaeli was sentenced by an Israel court to 9 months of community service and ordered to pay a fine of 2.5 million shekels (US$730,000) as penalty and taxes owed. As for her mother, Tzipi Refaeli, acting as Bar’s agent, had to pay the same penalty and would be jailed in prison for 16 months after being charged with failure to file income, avoiding paying taxes, and using her relative’s name to rent house for her daughter.