Cooperation with the Belgian authorities, complaints of fraud by European companies, forged documents seized on mobile computers and flash drives, electronic eavesdropping for telephones used in the attempted fraud and against the targets of the fraud, visual documentation and wiretapping of apartments in which the fraud was committed helped expose a sophisticated and systematic fraud network that operated from Israel and cheated companies throughout Europe of an aggregate total of €9 million.
The Central District State Attorney today filed an indictment at the Central District Court against Henri Oumissi, Daniel Alon, Jeremy Laloum, and Mordecai Lalouche from Netanya. The indictment includes 23 counts, and accuses the defendants of conspiracy to commit a crime, multiple cases of joint aggravated fraud, impersonation, destroying evidence and obstruction of justice, money laundering, and tax violations.
As part of the same affair, an indictment was filed at the Netanya Magistrates Court against Bondi Enzo and Yitzhak Sonino from Netanya for conspiracy to commit a crime and multiple cases of attempted joint aggravated fraud, joint aggravated forgery, and impersonation.
According to the indictment, the affair involved a sophisticated and systematic network of fraud that operated from Israel and defrauded companies all over Europe on a large scale. The method allegedly used by the defendants for the fraud included the identification of personnel for liaison between two companies: one a supplier and the other owing a debt to the supplier.
According to the indictment the accused falsely portrayed themselves to the company owing money as personnel in the supplier company, and used forged documents to persuade the debtor company to change the particulars of the bank account to which the debt payments were to be made. When the fraudulently obtained money began arriving in the account under their control, the accused contacted the supplier and falsely represented themselves as personnel in the debtor company, while saying that transfer of the payments had been delayed. In this way, the accused gained time during which the payments were transferred to an account under their control, without the supplier company being aware of their absence.
According to the indictment, the accused and others devised a worldwide system of fraud centered around Israel. They rented apartments in which they operated a "war room" with a great deal of technological equipment. In addition to their activity in Israel, the accused kept many bank accounts in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland, to which they sought to channel the proceeds from their fraud.
In addition to the fraud allegedly committed by the accused, the indictments list a number of cases of attempted fraud. At a certain stage, the accused extended their fraud network from French-speaking countries to Italy, recruiting the Italian-speaking Enzo and Sonino for this purpose.
Among other things, Oumissi,, Alon, and Lalouche allegedly conspired to defraud Media Market by impersonating representatives of Electrolux, a supplier of goods to Media Market. By using forged e-mail addresses and documents and impersonating company employees, it is alleged, they fraudulently obtained €1,059,123.61 from Media Market.
Similarly, another count of the indictment states that the accused conspired to defraud Eldi through impersonation and by using the name of Bosch, a supplier of goods to Eldi. By using forged e-mail addresses and documents and impersonating a manager and employees of the two companies, they fraudulently obtained €794,175.70 from Eldi.
The accused also allegedly conspired to defraud ICI Paris XL by impersonating representatives of Chanel, a supplier of goods to ICI Paris XL, and obtained €5,475,651 from ICI Paris XL.
It is also alleged that they attempted to defraud Kia Motors France through impersonation and using the name of the Girondins de Bordeaux soccer team, which has business connections with Kia. It is alleged that for this purpose, the accused created forged e-mail addresses designed to look like the companies' official e-mail addresses, forged documents bearing the companies' logos, and forged bank documents.
According to another count, the accused attempted to defraud the Eurosport television channel in France through fraudulent use of the name of LFP, the French professional soccer league.
The indictments also state that among other things, Oumissi, Alon, Laloum, Bondi, and Sonino attempted to defraud Diners Club Italia through impersonation and the use of the name of the company CEO, and attempted to defraud various companies by fraudulently using the name of Diadora and its officeholders, after collecting information about Diadora and other companies having business ties with it.
The indictment states that during the period in which the accused operated, they fraudulently obtained a total of €9,113,037.
The indictments also state that on June 2, 2016, Oumissi, Alon, and Laloum were exposed in a French media report concerning fraud committed from Israel aimed at companies in France. After dismantling some of the disc drives, they broke and destroyed a hard disc and computers and tried to destroy another hard disc in order to prevent their use as evidence, thereby obstructing justice.
The case was conducted by the Central District State Attorney's Office, Advocates Dana Alon and Eitan Finkelstein from the combined economic crime squad, and Advocates Koby Moskovitch and Omri Gal.
The case was investigated by the National Unit of Israel Police, in cooperation with the Israel Tax Authority Yahalom unit, and the international department in the State Attorney's Office, with assistance from the Israel Money Laundering Prohibition Authority.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 8, 2016
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