Israeli scammer walks free while copycats go to jail
THE SCAM had all the trappings of a major con. Working from a dingy office building, eight immigrants from Europe allegedly conspired to dupe major multinational companies out of millions of dollars.
Most of them spoke French, the others Italian. Using their language skills and familiarity with European business practices, they phoned employees at some of Europe’s biggest companies, identified themselves as top executives and tricked workers into transferring large sums to bank accounts in their control, police said.
It was a classic “fake president” scam, a scheme used by criminals worldwide that has robbed firms of about $1.8 billion (R27bn) in just over two years, according to the FBI. Most of the eight suspects in the latest case are either jailed or under house arrest.
But not the man who boasts of pioneering the scam years ago, inspiring copycats around the globe: French-Israeli con-artist Gilbert Chikli. He remains a free man, living in luxury in a seaside Israeli city as French authorities try to bring him to justice over a massive con for which he was convicted.
“If they have a problem, they can come see me. They know my address. I am not fleeing,” Chikli said. “Send them my regards.”
The case shows how financial crime has globalised faster and more efficiently than the law enforcement trying to fight it.
Israel extradited Chikli to France to stand trial in 2008 for defrauding HSBC, Thomson, Accenture and other companies out of € 6.1 million (R104m), and attempting to extract more than € 70m from at least 33 others. But in 2009, Chikli flew back to Israel.
A French court in May last year sentenced him in absentia to seven years in prison.
France issued two requests to Israel for Chikli’s arrest, the French Justice Ministry said. The first request came the year after he escaped prosecution in France.
The second came this January, just two weeks after the release of a new heist-thriller film based on Chikli’s life story, starring Julie Gayet, French President François Hollande’s companion.
Still, Israeli officials show no signs of going after Chikli, even as they prosecute his alleged copycats for similar crimes. Israel’s police and Justice Ministry declined to explain why, saying they did not discuss individual cases.
Interpol cannot force a country to comply with arrest notices.
Israeli Justice Ministry spokesman Noam Sharvit said Israel adhered to extradition requests when warranted.
French Justice Ministry spokesman Olivier Pedro-Jose said Israeli-French co-operation on such cases came with delays and often related “to extremely complex financial affairs”.
Criminals, in contrast, have been far more nimble at keeping a step ahead of the law.
Sammy Ghozlan, a former French police commissioner and founder of France’s National Bureau for Vigilance Against AntiSemitism, and now lives in Israel, said fraudsters believed they could get away with scamming French firms while in Israel, and claimed Israel was not doing enough to fight the phenomenon. – AP