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Eran Mizrahi, serial swindler
Photo: Motti Kimchi

Investment advisor sentenced to 12 years for stealing 57M

Eran Mizrahi, investment broker from upscale suburb in central Israel convicted of stealing over NIS 50M from clients, sentenced to 12 years. Judge: Public interest demands future thieves be deterred

The Tel Aviv Magistrate Court has sentenced an investment advisor accused of fraud to 12 years in prison.

 

Eran Mizrahi, an investment advisor from the central city of Savyon, confessed to defrauding his clients of sums amounting to some NIS 57 million (roughly $16 million). The clients entrusted the money in his hands so that he would invest it on their behalf. Unbeknownst to them, however, Mizrahi kept the funds for his own personal use.

 

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In his ruling, Judge Zvi Gurfinkel wrote that public interest demanded a severe punishment so as to deter future thieves and frauds. The 12-year sentence, according to the judge, sends a clear message that no investment yields quick and easy returns.

 

Bad investment

In addition to incarceration, Mizrahi was fined NIS 300,000 (roughly $82,000) and will have to pay tens of thousands of shekels in compensation to his clients.

 

Mizrahi, 41, was convicted last April of embezzlement, fraudulently obtaining benefits and forgery.

 

He convinced his clients that by investing their money in Swiss Banks and foreign currency he could produce heavy returns on their initial investments. He gained their confidence by portraying himself as an expert in the field.

 

Mizrahi's clients were forced to invest an initial sum of at least $500,000. Among his victims were a lawyer, accountant and senior executives in leading hi-tech companies can be found, as well as a number of close friends of the investment firm's owner.

 

It still remains unclear where the money currently is and whether the victims will ever see it again. Some of the clients placed very large sums of money – like those from the sale of a property, or even all of their savings – in his hands.

 

All the while, Mizrahi is known to have been leading a luxurious life in the upscale suburb of Savyon, and often traveling abroad.

 

Mizrahi admitted to receiving the money, but insisted that any losses were the result of poor investment decisions.

 

According to the judge, however, Mzrahi has perpetrated a "comprehensive fraud scheme spanning over years and pertaining to huge sums of money the defendant received from his victims, all the while knowing that in some cases it wall all they had."

 

 

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פרסום ראשון: 07.04.13, 18:49
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