Only a week after the arrest of 26 Israelis under the suspicion of running a massive Forex and crypto trading scam, the authorities have released all the suspects without any preconditions.
The arrests were made in a joint operation conducted by the Israeli police and United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was led by the latter. Additionally, arrests were made in connection with the fraud ring in Ukraine and South Africa.
In addition, the Cypriot authorities made at least one arrest recently at the request of the FBI, according to Israeli news outlet N12. Though the report could not confirm the exact number of arrests made on the Mediterranean island, it is believed to be connected to the previous Israeli arrests.
Could Not Press Charges
Despite more than two dozen arrests in Israel, the police only named two individuals, Guy Grinberg and Snir Moshe Hananya, in the official complaint and brought them to court. Grinberg is a well-known Israeli businessman and a tech entrepreneur but not much is known about Hananya.
According to the original police statement, the arrests were made after hours of raids in a Tel Aviv office premise. The suspects were accused of running an investment fraud racket.
Though the police did not name the company or the scheme, they suspect that the ring defrauded millions of shekels from dozens of foreign citizens, mostly US residents. The arrests were made after a sting that revealed the operating technique of the ring to the authorities.
However, the attorneys of the two named Israeli suspects are calling the arrests unjust and are considering suing the Israeli police over the arrests.
Meanwhile, Europol collaborated with local authorities in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, the Netherlands and Ukraine to bust a massive binary options fraud ring, conducting eight house searches, one high-value arrest and taking 17 individuals for questioning.
