The man, named as Yisrael Ariel, had in fact gone bankrupt several years ago and is in considerable debt. He was married twice before, and conned his second wife out of most of the money in her bank account.
"We had very high living standards. We went abroad twice a year, sitting in business class seats," she said. "We had five credit cards, all of which were registered to my name, and so was our bank account." Ariel gradually took control of her account and began taking money out of it without her knowledge.After a while she received a call from an acquaintance, who told her that her husband was bankrupt. Following this she called her bank, to discover that her husband had withdrawn NIS 350,000 from the account, and left her with a debt of NIS 100,000, according to the report.
"I am Yisrael Ariel, that is my name and that is how I've presented myself throughout everything. It was never claimed that I was impersonating someone else," he said in response to the report. "All claims against me are made by bitter women with whom I've decided to cut contact, whether it be due to extortion attempts or scams and other illegal activities on their part."
Other stories of his alleged cons were revealed on the Channel 12 show The Imposters, which tries to expose people who have gained much by pretending to be someone else to those around them. One such example of Ariel's fraud included telling those close to him that he needs to gather funds for special cancer treatment overseas. "I have lost all faith in women and in a partnership with one and I would rather be alone. Also my health has deteriorated and I'm writing this from my sick-bed," Ariel countered. "I went through oncological surgery after which it seemed to have caused a brain hemorrhage. Like most people who go through such a thing, I got some small loans which were all paid back."
He was also described as vengeful by those who did not comply with his schemes, as he would terrorize people who turned him down or found out about his lies, including opening a fake Facebook account of a man who angered him, using an indecent photo and writing things in his name. "One of the women attempted to gather others to file a police report. I was called in to questioning and after an investigation, the case was closed," Ariel continued. "Almost 100% of the stories against me are made up, and to that I can't respond because it's my word against theirs and only a confrontation can bring the truth to light."
Another story involved him sending threats to a woman who found out he was lying to her, where he threatened to hurt her children, while other testimonies against him included stalking.
"Women who have impure intentions do not check the heart and qualities of a man, but rather his wallet. Where there was no truth on the part of the woman I was seeing, I cut the connection and that was something those women did not like and so they began threatening me."
"My debts are comprised of about 90% unusual compound interest, and that is for now being examined in court. If the women who have conspired against me to file a report would have acted in good faith, they would not have reached this heartbreak, or would have realized why they're divorced for 15 years and still don't have a relationship."In response to the claims of creating fakes profiles, Ariel said, "There's no basis for the claims of fake profiles. This is being investigated by the cyber division of the Israeli police. During the investigation it was found that I didn't make those profiles, and the case was closed."
"I have never addressed women inappropriately and I have never threatened ones I was rejected by. If you're hiding the faces of the women and distort their voices [in the TV show] you must not be looking for the truth, but rather looking for 'spicy' stories and shaming for the sole purpose of higher ratings," he concluded.