Arnon Milchan

Milchan was born in Rehovot on December 6, 1944, during the British Mandate.[1][6] His family background has been described as that of an eleventh-generation sabra, reflecting a multigenerational connection to the country.[6] He attended the London School of Economics and the University of Geneva.[6] His early activities also included soccer: he played for Maccabi Tel Aviv and Israel’s national team.[6]

At age 21, Milchan inherited his father’s fertilizer company.[1] The business was debt-ridden, but he transformed it into one of Israel’s largest agrochemical companies.[6] The successful chemicals concern became known as Milchan Brothers.[3][1] His development of that enterprise preceded the Hollywood career for which he subsequently became widely known.[3][1]

Milchan began producing Israeli films in the 1970s, including Dizengoff 99, before entering the Hollywood film industry.[1] By 2013, his production career extended to more than 120 films made since the 1970s.[7] Directors with whom he worked included Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, Sergio Leone, and Oliver Stone.[7] His productions included Pretty Woman, Fight Club, and L.A. Confidential, placing those titles within a body of work that developed over several decades.[7]

A 1997 account of his film activities identified him as the owner of New Regency Productions and associated him with The King of Comedy, Brazil, Once Upon a Time in America, Natural Born Killers, Pretty Woman, Free Willy, The Client, and Heat.[8] These films formed part of his established production record before the later successes of 12 Years a Slave and other New Regency releases.[8][1] His producer credit on L.A. Confidential also appears in the National Film Registry’s personnel listings, whose credits are informational rather than definitive or comprehensive.[2]

Milchan founded New Regency, through which he continued his film-production activities.[1] Its films included JFK, Heat, Fight Club, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, 12 Years a Slave, and Birdman.[1] Other films associated with New Regency included Free Willy, while 20th Century Fox had distributed the company’s films since 1998.[4]

He produced 12 Years a Slave and joined Brad Pitt onstage when the film received the Best Picture statuette at the 2014 Academy Awards.[9] His subsequent New Regency filmography included Gone Girl, The Big Short, and The Revenant, and a 2017 profile described him as having two Academy Awards by that year.[10]

His commercial activities extended beyond film production.[8] In 1997, he had acquired a 12.5 percent stake in Puma for $75 million, with options to acquire an additional 12.5 percent.[8] He also purchased the independent record label Restless for $15 million.[8] Those transactions added sportswear and recorded music to the range of businesses associated with him at a time when he already owned New Regency Productions.[8]

The chemicals business remained another component of his business history.[3] Milchan Brothers, the enterprise he had developed from his father’s fertilizer company, was sold to businessman Yossi Maiman in June 2009 for an estimated $10 million.[3]

In 2012, New Regency and the Israeli agency Add Content agreed to establish a content-development venture in Israel.[4] The arrangement called for New Regency to invest in concepts submitted by Israeli creators, with Add Content staff and New Regency representatives assisting projects from their initial stages through production.[4] It was intended to function as a “content incubator” and bring some Israeli productions to the American film and television industry.[11] The project was described as Milchan’s first activity in Israel after his decision, two years earlier, to sell his Israeli investments.[4]

Milchan also maintained relationships with senior Israeli political figures, including Shimon Peres and Ariel Sharon.[12] In his 2023 testimony, he described those relationships in connection with behind-the-scenes efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians, without providing additional details.[12]

His public life also included acknowledgments that he had undertaken work for Israel.[1] In a 2013 television interview, he discussed clandestine arms transactions and efforts to obtain technologies that Israel allegedly needed for its nuclear program.[13] He later described his motivation in terms of helping his country because he was Israeli, while questioning whether the label “spy” appropriately described his activities.[1] Accounts of the precise nature and extent of that work became a separate subject of public discussion.[10][13]

In 2023, Milchan became a central prosecution witness in Case 1000 during Netanyahu’s criminal trial and also testified about Case 2000.[5] He gave evidence by video from Brighton, England, with his testimony concluding after ten days in July.[5] His appearance addressed his friendship with Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu, gifts he had provided them, and proposed contacts between newspaper proprietors.[5][14]

Milchan’s film career links Israeli production in the 1970s with a substantial body of Hollywood filmmaking.[1][7] Beginning with Israeli films such as Dizengoff 99, his work expanded to productions including Pretty Woman, Fight Club, and L.A. Confidential.[1][7] By 2013, the reported total of more than 120 films reflected the scale of that career rather than an association with only a few prominent titles.[7]

New Regency provided a continuing corporate framework for his involvement in American cinema.[1] Its output included JFK, Heat, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Birdman, and 12 Years a Slave.[1] Milchan’s appearance onstage with Brad Pitt for the 2014 Best Picture presentation marked the Academy recognition of 12 Years a Slave, which he had produced.[9] His later production record also included the New Regency releases Gone Girl, The Big Short, and The Revenant.[10]

The Israeli content-development venture extended his professional connection with Israel beyond his earliest films.[4] By investing in concepts submitted by Israeli creators and providing support through production, the partnership with Add Content sought to create a route from Israeli development to American film and television.[4][11]

His life also became the subject of book-length biographies.[15][16] Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman’s Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan was published by Gefen Books in 2011.[16] A Hebrew-language biography, Sodot, appeared in the same year under the names Meir Doron and Joe Gelman.[15] These works addressed both his film career and accounts of his work for Israel.[15][16]

Accounts of Milchan’s defense-related work differ in terminology and evidentiary basis.[1][10] His 2013 interview addressed secret arms transactions and technology acquisition, while Shimon Peres said that he had recruited Milchan during his own service at the Defense Ministry and that Milchan participated in defense procurement and intelligence operations.[1][13] Accounts also associated Milchan with the Bureau of Scientific Relations, known as Lakam or Lekem, while a 2010 profile described service under Rafi Eitan and work in the Mossad.[6][13] In a 2017 interview, however, Milchan rejected the description of himself as a spy, emphasizing agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and assistance to Israel.[10]

The 2011 biographies presented more detailed accounts of this activity.[15][16] Their catalog descriptions included acquiring records and drawings of uranium-enrichment centrifuges for Dimona, work through Lakam, and secret negotiations concerning Israel’s nuclear arsenal.[15][16] A later profile recounted Milchan’s discussion of assisting apartheid-era South Africa in exchange for uranium and of operating, at the height of his activity, 30 companies in 17 countries while brokering transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars.[1] These sensitive details rest on biographies, interviews, and recollections rather than documentary records reproduced by the cited sources.[1][15][16]

The principal legal controversy involving his public life concerned Case 1000, a case against Netanyahu rather than a charge against Milchan. On February 28, 2019, the attorney general announced an intention, pending a hearing, to indict Netanyahu for fraud and breach of trust in connection with the case.[17] A Congressional Research Service summary quoted the draft indictment as alleging that gifts were given “in large scale and in unusual ways” in exchange for actions by Netanyahu. It also recorded Netanyahu’s defense that gifts from friends could be permissible and that some decisions went against Milchan’s interests.[17]

Published summaries used different gift totals. A 2019 legal-monitor report put the alleged gifts from Milchan and James Packer at about NIS 1 million, approximately $276,000, while a 2023 summary of the indictment gave a combined value of about NIS 690,000.[18][19] The later report described cigars, champagne, and jewelry and said the indictment alleged that Netanyahu acted on matters involving Milchan’s American visa, tax benefits, and communications regulation.[19] Other reported allegations concerned an investment in the Keshet channel and a request that an Israel Defense Forces officer provide a helicopter for a business trip to Jordan.[20] These were allegations against Netanyahu rather than findings of guilt, and Netanyahu denied soliciting gifts or engaging in a quid pro quo.[17][20][19]

During his 2023 testimony, Milchan acknowledged giving the Netanyahus cigars and champagne and said he thought he had also given them jewelry.[12] He described a close friendship and said gifts sometimes began on his initiative but later became routine, with quantities increasing at the recipients’ request.[12] He said the cigars purchased at his Beit Yanai home were used mainly for Netanyahu and that he had been happy to give gifts, while later realizing that the quantities might have been excessive.[19] He also said he had not counted the gifts and had not known what quantity was acceptable.[5]

Visa assistance was a point of disagreement between reports about the prosecution case and Milchan’s testimony.[21][22] A 2017 report said that Netanyahu asked Secretary of State John Kerry three times in 2014 to intervene after Milchan began receiving annual United States visas instead of ten-year visas, and that a ten-year visa was subsequently restored.[22] Netanyahu attributed his assistance to Milchan’s contributions to Israeli security.[23] In 2023, Milchan testified that Netanyahu had not helped him obtain the visa and had said, “I don’t issue visas and I can’t help,” although Milchan acknowledged that Netanyahu discussed the issue with the United States ambassador.[21]

Milchan also testified that Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu asked him to use his relationships with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes and Israel Hayom owner Sheldon Adelson to broker an agreement between the newspapers.[14] He said the proposed arrangement included not harming the prime minister and his wife and that he informed Netanyahu when the negotiations received a negative response.[14] The uncompleted arrangement formed the basis of Case 2000; Netanyahu maintained his innocence.[14]

A proposed industrial-zone venture resurfaced during Netanyahu’s trial testimony in July 2025.[24] The prosecution suggested that Milchan and Indian businessman Ratan Tata had expected high profits from a joint Israeli–Palestinian–Jordanian project proposed in 2009. Netanyahu denied the suggestion, and the exchange did not establish the prosecution’s characterization as fact.[24]