Right-wing Israeli Politician Flees To U.S. To Escape Creditors

JERUSALEM, Aug 18 (AFP) - Yossi Olmert, a senior member of Israel's ruling Likud party and brother of Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has fled to the United States to escape his creditors, Israeli media reported Wednesday.
Olmert, who sits on right-wing Likud's central committee, told the Yediot Aharonot daily he was "covered in debts" and had flown to New York after receiving death threats.
A renowned commentator on Middle East affairs and former peace negotiator with Syria, Olmert said he would try to muster funds in the US to help him repay debts run up in several failed business ventures and an abortive election campaign in his hometown of Raanana, outside Tel Aviv.
Asked about his younger brother's predicament, Commerce and Industry Minister and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's number two Ehud Olmert told journalists: "Yossi is indeed experiencing financial problems, but he has not moved definitively to the United States, where he is seeking to resolve his problems."