Israeli Online Fraud: Case Launched

Around 2,500 victims of the Israeli-based online “binary options” fraud scam will be suing in a London court, it has emerged—and there are “tens of thousands” more complainants waiting to join them.

Their legal representative has also written a scathing letter to Israel’s Justice Ministry pointing out that the Jewish state has refused to intercede to stop the scam.

Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv’s financial quarter, where the online scam center is located.

News that Israel was the world’s center for the online fraud scam was made public in that country last month—but of course was ignored by the Jewish lobby-controlled media in Europe and America.

At the time, it was revealed that Israel is the center of the world’s “binary options” fraud scam—a practice so illegal that the US has outlawed it.

Israel has in fact also outlawed it—but only for Israelis, allowing the “binary options” companies—which fill multiple buildings in Tel Aviv’s financial quarter—to prey on thousands of victims in other countries.

The revelations, made in the Times of Israel, were notable—not for any condemnation of the practice or any moral issues involved—but only for the worry about what harm this might do it Israel’s image abroad.

In that light, the Times of Israel has pursued the story, and now in its latest revelation, has announced the upcoming court case.

That Jewish paper said that London-based lawyer Gabriele Giambrone, who is handling the joint-action case, had sent a letter to Israel’s Justice Ministry informing it that his firm represents 2,500 clients defrauded by binary options and forex companies operating from Israel.

“The Israeli regulatory and enforcement authorities have so far failed to take any action,” Giambrone said in his letter dated April 5, “despite the widespread knowledge of where these companies are based, which offices they are operating from, and who are the individuals behind it. It appears that none of the regulators are interested, so investor protection falls down the chasm between the net.”

Israel has in fact been the center of this online scam for almost ten years, allowing an online trading industry which the Times of Israel described as “fraudulent,” and has “fleeced hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly billions, from hundreds of thousands of customers globally, while Israeli authorities have opted to look the other way.”

Giambrone told the newspaper that the dozens of Israeli-based companies will be named as defendants in an upcoming lawsuit on behalf of the 2,500 victims before the High Court of Justice in London.

Giambrone said his clients who were defrauded by Israeli binary options firms include many residents of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

The law firm has also announced that it will hold a series of seminars in the Middle East between June 5 and 15 to assist and inform additional “thousands” of defrauded investors about how to launch litigation.

Demand from defrauded binary options and forex traders in Arab countries has been so high, said Giambrone, that his office has been overwhelmed.

“The number of people signing up is unbelievable. This is becoming too big for us. In places like Kuwait, these forex scams are becoming headline news because of the sheer number of people involved.”

While some fraudulent companies operating from Israel may have falsely believed they were safe from detection because they used fake names and addresses as well as secure VoIP phone lines, Giambrone described how his law firm has in many cases been able to follow the trail of fraud back to Israel and discover the real names and personal information of alleged executives of companies.

“Most of the Israeli companies use a Cyprus vehicle to be passported in Europe. They then use the false pretense that this is a legitimate British company with a London address. Our Arab clients like dealing with British markets. One of our clients tracked down the number that called him and learned it used to be hired to a virtual office and that the call had been redirected to Israel. He realized he had actually been speaking to someone in a back office in Israel.”

True to form, the Times of Israel then posed the question which reveals its real interest in the story:

“What happens if not just a handful of Arab clients, but thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, realize they were defrauded by people calling from Israel?” the paper asked.

The answer to that question was provided by that newspaper’s next interviewed person: Gadi Wolfsfeld, a professor of political communication and hasbara (public diplomacy) at IDC-Herzliya. His answer was simple: “It’s certainly not good for Israel.”

For his part, Giambrone said that the fact that so much alleged fraud is being traced to Israeli individuals is “putting a bad light on Israeli industry worldwide.”

“Israel used to be known as the startup nation,” he said. “Now its reputation is being tainted by the fact that there are a number of crooks using Israeli IT ability to create very pretty fake websites, using SEO (search engine optimization) and Google to target victims into thinking they are doing legitimate trading.”