State: Extradite Americans who ran off with $33m.

The Justice Ministry extradition department filed a request on Thursday to extradite two Americans to the US who allegedly ran off to Israel with more than $33 million they had defrauded from banks in California.

The ministry said the request to the Jerusalem District Court detailed the suspects’ falsifying of financial statements and documents of fake deals with fictitious clients to convince California banks to extend them loans.

Aviv Mizrahi, who also has Israeli citizenship, and Aryeh Leon Greenes allegedly carried out the scheme from 2004 to 2008.

Mizrahi fled to Israel in 2009 as the US criminal investigation was in progress, while Greenes fled in 2012.

In 2010, Mizrahi changed his name to Shoham Schwartz, allegedly to avoid being found by US authorities.

Despite their efforts to flee law enforcement, Israeli and US authorities cooperated to eventually arrest Mizrahi in Jerusalem and Greenes in Beit Shemesh, and prosecutor Nina Mansour filed the extradition request.

Also on Thursday, extradition department lawyer Ruti Fausner filed a request to extradite Asher Krasner from Israel to the US for alleged sexual crimes on a seven-year-old girl dating back to 2007.

A ministry statement said that following Krasner’s escape to Israel, authorities had been searching for him but only found him on Wednesday.

This capped a week in which extradition department lawyer Yael Biton filed a request to extradite Eli Donna to the US for an alleged cocaine distribution conspiracy.