Israeli 'Madoff' sentenced to 12 year in prison on NIS 57 m. fraud scheme

Eran Mizrahi, convicted of a fraud involving millions, will also have pay half a million shekel in fines and to the victims.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Police car 370 (photo credit: reuters)
Police car 370
(photo credit: reuters)
Eran Mizrahi, a major investment fund manager also known as “the Israeli Madoff,” was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday for a NIS 57 million fraud and Ponzi scheme.
Mizrahi was also fined NIS 300,000 and must pay NIS 258,000 to victims.
The state had requested a longer sentence of 15 years and a larger fine, but reportedly, only a lawyer for Mizrahi indicated a desire to appeal the punishment to the Supreme Court.
From 2007 to May 2012, Mizrahi ran a scheme in which he received investors’ funds, spent or invested the funds in an illegal manner and lied to investors telling them the results were much better than they were in order to get more funds from his clients.
He eventually lost enough of the funds to be unable to operate and to get arrested under suspicion for committing financial crimes.
During the course of the case, victims testified about the havoc that Mizrahi’s scheme, in which most of the embezzled funds were eventually lost completely, wreaked on their lives.
Mizrahi was convicted in April on 84 counts of embezzlement under aggravated circumstances, 101 counts of aggravated forgery, money-laundering and theft.