Allegations of sexual harassment, pimping and hard drug-use against a junior Knesset member have cast a shadow over Israel's parliament and emphasised the difficulties facing Benjamin Netanyahu's tiny coalition.
Oren Hazan, who was number 30 on Likud's candidate list and scraped into the Knesset, has been the subject of two hard-hitting TV news reports in the past two weeks.
The first, on Channel Two, claimed that while he was the manager of a casino in Bulgaria, he would procure prostitutes for gamblers and take crystal meth with friends. A subsequent report claimed that, in a previous job - managing a bar in Tel Aviv - he sexually harassed female employees.
Mr Hazan, 33, strenuously denied the allegations, saying they were the result of "millions of shekels spent on trying to destroy me".
There is no legal process for removing a serving Knesset member unless an actual criminal indictment is served. Mr Hazan insisted that he would not resign, and it is unclear whether the police will investigate.
Most of his Likud colleagues have refused to comment on the reports, and those who have insist he should be given the opportunity to clear his name.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein has unofficially suspended Mr Hazan from his position as deputy speaker but the reality is that Likud, with a coalition of only 61 MKs - the smallest of majorities - cannot afford to lose his vote. A member of an influential family in the party, his father, Yehiel Hazan, also served one term as an MK and was convicted in 2006 of voting twice in a Knesset ballot.
During the primaries, Hazan junior won the slot reserved for young Likudniks and had the support of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Mr Netanyahu had been anxious that the slot would not be won by a member of the far-right "Jewish Leadership" group.