Mexican authorities extradited Roy Cuzin, wanted for his role in a binary option investor fraud case of the UTrade company, and under investigation by the Securities Department of the Israel Securities Agency, to Israel, the State Attorney's Office confirmed on Thursday evening.
According to the indictment filed against him in Israel, Cuzin served as the chief analyst at UTrade from 2012 until 2015, under the management of Aviv Talmor. During that period, the company fraudulently raised tens of millions of shekels from approximately 600 clients by presenting false representations to them regarding key aspects of the investment, the State Attorney's Office clarified.
These false representations included the risk and potential return of the investment, including fictitious past returns, false representations about how funds would be used, and a representation of no conflict of interest between the company and clients, while such a conflict did exist, the announcement clarified.
The company used client funds for various purposes, not just for trading, as it had promised to clients. By 2015, the company no longer had enough money to pay returns on investments to clients, the announcement added.
Cuzin had been interrogated under caution for his role in 2016, leaving the country shortly afterwards. In 2018, the indictment was filed against him, as well as others, and Talmor was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison approximately four years afterwards, the State Attorney's Office noted.
Mexican authorities arrested Cuzin in July, approved extradition in December
Cuzin had moved between various countries in the years since leaving Israel, before being arrested in Mexico in July. His extradition was approved last month, the State Attorney's Office clarified.
Binary options are defined by the US Securities and Exchange Commission as "a type of options contract in which the payout depends entirely on the outcome of a yes/no proposition and typically relates to whether the price of a particular asset will rise above or fall below a specified amount."
"Once the option is acquired, there is no further decision for the holder to make regarding the exercise of the binary option because binary options exercise automatically. Unlike other types of options, a binary option does not give the holder the right to buy or sell the specified asset. When the binary option expires, the option holder receives either a pre-determined amount of cash or nothing at all," the SEC's website added.