Israeli Woman Sentenced to 22 Years for Investment Fraud; Must Pay $28M In Restitution

By Tom Roberts

Lee Elbaz has been sentenced to 22 years in jail for masterminding a plot that reportedly defrauded tens of thousands of investors in multiple nations out of tens of millions of dollars.

A federal judge in Maryland, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang, lectured Elbaz about her actions, saying they caused investors to lose their homes, savings and relationships.

“This was a very significant crime with significant harm to victims,” Chuang said.

“Elbaz grasped the arm of one of her attorneys as the judge announced her sentence. She didn’t address the judge in court, but defense attorney Barry Pollack said his client submitted a sealed letter to the court,” the Associated Press reported. “Pollack said Elbaz will appeal her conviction and sentence, which he called “much harsher than it needed to be.”

“Yes, there was harm done here,” Pollack said. “But not all of that harm can be laid at Ms. Elbaz’s doorstep.” Elbaz is one of 21 defendants charged in the fraud case and was the first to be tried. Five pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Elbaz was also ordered to pay $28 million in restitution to victims.

Incarcerated since her conviction in August, Elbaz “was brought to the court in an orange jumpsuit. She sobbed intermittently throughout the hearing, and grasped the arm of one of her attorneys as the judge announced the sentence,” according to timesofisrael.com. Elbaz “was found guilty by a Maryland jury on August 6 on three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a vast scheme to defraud investors all over the world out of more than $140 million,” the newspaper reported. “Elbaz was the CEO of Yukom Communications Ltd., one of more than a hundred binary options companies that operated in Israel between the years 2008-2018.”

“Yukom employees pretended to be from other countries, lied about their professional qualifications, and adopted stage names. They falsely guaranteed profits, lied about their rates of return, and didn’t tell investors that they only made money if their customers lost money. Elbaz trained her employees how to do these schemes based in Caesarea, a northern city in Israel. Her defense attorney claimed that she was not responsible for their acts; they were working alone,” according to ap.com.