Fake Mossad agent sentenced to 27 months in prison for impersonation

Man lied to maintain romantic relationship with woman, and extort funds from a security adviser.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Scales of Justice 370 (photo credit: REUTERS / Stephane Mahe)
Scales of Justice 370
(photo credit: REUTERS / Stephane Mahe)
The Rehovot Magistrate’s Court on Sunday sentenced Shai Raz, who impersonated the deputy head of the Mossad to fraudulently obtain funds and maintain a romantic relationship with a woman, to 27 months in prison.
The sentence was part of a plea bargain endorsed by the court in which Raz reversed his earlier denial of the charges in favor of confessing to most of the charges.
In order to convince a woman, T.H., to become romantically involved with him, Raz told her that he was deputy head of the Mossad and regularly showed her a variety of false and forged documents about his enormous wealth.
In one incident, Raz showed T.H. documents indicating that he had a bank account with 150 million euros, while at another time he presented her with fake documents showing that he had placed NIS 1m. in funds in the bank accounts of T.H.’s two daughters.
From the start of December 2012 until around the time Raz was indicted on January, 31, 2013, he maintained a relationship with T.H. which included sexual relations, an engagement ring and promises of getting married on March 15, 2013.
Raz had told T.H. that his name was Daniel Rozen and that Shlomo Artzi would sing at their wedding.
On this charge, the court noted that Raz could have been accused of rape, but that the prosecution had only charged Raz with receipt of a benefit under fraudulent circumstances.
The court said it would be somewhat more lenient in sentencing Raz for his crime because he never used violence against T.H. and never swindled her out of money.
Besides the relationship, Raz, starting in May 2010, also swindled Yoav Taam, a security adviser, out of significant funds to cover his personal expenses.
These ranged from a rental car, office space, a hotel room and an expensive iPod.
In order to receive funds from Taam and pretend to conduct business with him, Raz told Taam that he had recently left a position at the Mossad when his daughter had become ill.
More specifically, he told Taam that he had been an expert in information security.
Next, Raz created fictional “clients” with all sorts of needs, which he would ask Taam to pay for, but then use for himself.
Raz told Taam that he had a German customer coming to Israel who needed a car, and asked Taam to pay for the rental.
Raz used the car for several months, running up a bill of around NIS 30,000 and told Taam that his “client” was staying in Israel longer than expected.
In order to manage a biometric security program for another “client,” Raz convinced Taam to buy him an NIS 4,387 iPod.
Raz also convinced Taam to rent him office space and a hotel room for a Canadian “client” visiting Israel.
Raz told the court that, “as a general matter, I am sorry about what I did.”
In addition to his prison sentence, Raz must pay NIS 120,000 to Taam and NIS 20,000 to T.H.