Rather like the late Robert Maxwell, Arnon Milchan is a real-life Bond Villain, an Israeli nuclear spy who has also produced 158 Hollywood movies (most of them forgettable, but some pretty good like L.A. Confidential, Fight Club, and Heat). Whenever I see his name in the credits, which is often, I say, “Hey, it’s that real-life Bond Villain!”

But, it turns out, even real-life Bond Villains fret about the cost of their Bond Villainy.

From the New York Times news section:

The Hollywood Producer Who Could Bring Down Israel’s Netanyahu

Arnon Milchan, the movie mogul, billionaire spy and old friend of Benjamin Netanyahu, is about to testify at the Israeli prime minister’s corruption trial.

By Isabel Kershner
Reporting from Jerusalem

June 24, 2023

The life story of Arnon Milchan, billionaire Hollywood mogul and secret agent, could have been made for the silver screen: He produced blockbusters like “Pretty Woman,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and also made a fortune from arms dealing, including covert exploits procuring weapons for Israel, his native country.

A decade ago, he went public about his work for Israeli intelligence, landing himself in a spot of trouble. The government of the United States, where he had long been resident, balked at renewing his 10-year visa after revelations he and others made about one of his companies’ illegal export from the United States to Israel in the 1980s of devices that could serve as nuclear triggers.

But a longstanding relationship he had with Benjamin Netanyahu, then and once again the Israeli prime minister, proved to be useful.

Mr. Netanyahu successfully lobbied senior American officials

E.g., Secretary of State John Kerry

on Mr. Milchan’s behalf to reinstate his visa, according to an Israeli indictment against Mr. Netanyahu.

On Sunday, Mr. Milchan will take the stand in court as a star prosecution witness against Mr. Netanyahu, who is on trial in three separate but interlocking corruption cases. In one, he has been charged with breach of trust over his dealings with Mr. Milchan.

Among other things, Mr. Netanyahu has been accused of intervening twice with U.S. officials to secure Mr. Milchan’s visa as part of a gifts-for-favors affair known in Israel as Case 1000.

According to prosecutors, Mr. Milchan lavished Mr. Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, with gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Most of those gifts were expensive cigars and pink Champagne delivered to the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem and his private household in the seaside town of Caesarea—often on demand, according to testimony in court from Mr. Milchan’s personal assistant and his driver. On occasion, Ms. Netanyahu received jewelry too. …

Mr. Netanyahu’s determined efforts to get Mr. Milchan’s 10-year visa renewed involved at least two urgent calls to then Secretary of State John Kerry, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss private communications.

Mr. Netanyahu has argued that he was bound to help Mr. Milchan with his visa because of his contributions to Israeli security and to the American economy.

… From testimony given in court last year by Hadas Klein, Mr. Milchan’s longtime personal assistant in Israel, a picture emerged of a man who counted his pennies and was increasingly concerned about the expense and legality of providing the Netanyahus with a steady supply of luxury goods…

Mr. Milchan would ask friends who were traveling to buy him duty-free cigars, hoping to save money, Ms. Klein testified, and at one point he tried to buy a cheaper brand for Mr. Netanyahu, she said, until Mr. Netanyahu complained about them. …

Mr. Milchan’s work for Israeli intelligence was first made public in an unofficial biography, “Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan,” written by Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman, and published in 2011. The book revealed that at least through the mid-1980s Mr. Milchan was a full-fledged operative for Lakam, Israeli intelligence’s now defunct Science Liaison Bureau.

Mr. Milchan, the book said, supervised government-backed accounts and front companies that financed covert Israeli operations outside the country, including buying components to build and maintain Israel’s nuclear arsenal.

Mr. Milchan has said he was not aware that the components were being exported without the required licenses and has not been accused of wrongdoing.

But he appeared intent on dispelling his image as an arms dealer who profited from large commissions in his transactions with Israel.

In 2013, he appeared in a popular Israeli documentary program and bragged about his contributions to Israeli security, starting from when he was recruited in the 1960s.

“Do you know what it is to be a kid of 20-something, and the country lets him be James Bond?” he said. “Wow. That’s action, that’s exciting.”

[Comment at Unz.com]