Israel’s Lack of Government Action to Curb Fraud is Starting to be Noticed

Israel is home to a lot of fraud, and it just seems to be getting worse. Fraud is nothing new, and it has been happening since the beginning of time. Someone comes along, they want to make money fast, and they don’t mind if they have to hurt people along the way to find success.

But over time, governments enact laws and should be doing their part in an effort to help curb some of this fraud.

In 2007, I remember reading how a fraudster who engaged in auto fraud in California was arrested in Israel. The man engaged in multiple forms of fraud, including insurance fraud. Israel complied with the request from the United States to extradite the man, so I realized that Israel is compliant when other countries seek justice for criminals that seek refuge in Israel.

I didn’t realize just how little Israel has been doing to curb fraud from within the country.

Media reports from November show that Israel still has a long way to go if it wants to be able to stop fraud. Media outlets in Israel and France at the time reported that some 3,000 French citizens were defrauded out of $20 million by Israelis.

Fraud is going to happen, but what I was shocked most about was that Israeli authorities reportedly won’t cooperate with the French to help bring justice to their citizens. Instead, the authorities have failed to retrieve the money and will not cooperate in the prosecution of the scammers that are still residing in Israel.

Oftentimes, the issue will come to an end when the fraudsters leave Israel and are traveling to another country. Gilbert Chikli, considered one of the world’s top con artists, was freely living in Israel for years despite the French authorities sentencing him to jail for seven years for charges of fraud.

It wasn’t until he left Israel to travel to Ukraine that he was finally detained and brought to justice after eight years of living freely in Israel.

Israel seems to have a long way to catch up to other countries to prevent fraud. What it seems, to me of course, is that Israel will only start to take serious legal action when its own citizens are the ones that are suffering.

French citizens don’t matter, or we can assume from the massive fraud that they have endured. Binary options have been a major issue in Israel for years, but when it brings in billions of dollars a year, it seems to be pushed under the rug.

Auto fraud has led to the rise of auto fraud lawyers, but again, it’s often fraud against insurance companies that is targeted by authorities. Fake claims, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, have been uncovered, as over 100 suspects were being detained.

The United States has taken on some of the responsibility to tackle fraud in Israel, most recently the FBI announced action against binary options scammers.

With the rampant fraud in Israel, on all levels from penny stock scams to auto fraud, it’s time for authorities to increase their efforts to end it before it hits large commercial companies.