In a major crackdown against investment fraud, the cyber unit of Israel Police's Lahav 433 arrested six suspects and detained several others, who allegedly defrauded investors online and provided digital infrastructure to other criminal organizations. The scale of the scams was massive as it is suspected that they provided infrastructure for fraudulent offenses to hundreds of forex offices globally and siphoned off tens of millions of euros, according to Israeli news outlet Posta.

A Massive Bust of Israeli Police

The raids and arrests by the Israeli police followed an investigation by German authorities against the fraudulent ring.

According to Posta, Despite the six arrests, Jeremy Katlan, also known as Roni Hajjaj, who is allegedly the head of the criminal network, managed to escape abroad. The latest arrests by Israeli authorities from the forex office in Ramat Gan include a family member of Katlan, who is suspected to be managing the venue jointly. The CEO of that office was also arrested.

A Criminal Ring of Investment Fraudsters

The suspects allegedly contacted victims globally through sales representatives, who presented themselves as traders of forex, cryptocurrencies, and other financial instruments. They even operated fraudulent call centers in Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia, Israel, and Kosovo.

Victims were lured in with promises of high returns. The fraudsters even presented falsified documents of the investment scams. However, in reality, the fraudsters never invested the collected proceeds from the investors. The fraudsters also transferred the victims' funds to bank accounts in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.

The German authorities were involved as they were the first to identify five groups that have been operating since 2018 and linked to the larger ring. The German investigators also collected testimonials from hundreds of victims.

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