After it was revealed Wednesday that two Israeli nationals have been implicated in one of the most scandalous cybercrime affairs in history, it was revealed further that U.S. authorities are conducting another investigation against the pair on suspicion that in addition to committing securities fraud they also ran an illegal gambling platform. On Wednesday, a Jerusalem court ordered the two Israelis, Gery Shalon, 31, and Ziv Orenstein, 40, to be held in custody after U.S. authorities requested their arrest for extradition. The two were arrested by police on Tuesday at their homes in Israel after U.S. authorities accused the men of engaging in a stock manipulation scheme involving U.S. penny stocks. The alleged crimes were committed between 2011 and the present, the judge said. In most U.S. states, online gambling is illegal. At this point, some sources believe that the FBI views the alleged gambling infractions as more severe than the alleged securities fraud. As he was arrested, a search of Shalon's property yielded 2 million shekels ($520,000) in cash. The prosecutor argued that this increased suspicion that he would try to flee the country. An indictment already filed against the suspects in the state of New York includes charges of money laundering, fraud and identity theft, which could add up to decades in prison. According to the indictment, Shalon, Orenstein and a third suspect, Joshua Samuel Aaron, 31, had worked with two unnamed stock promoters, one from New Jersey and one from Florida, to run a "pump-and-dump" scheme. Aaron is a U.S. citizen who lives in Moscow and Tel Aviv and remains at large, U.S. authorities have said. The Israeli prosecutor added that he was apparently in Russia. Behind the indictment stands the worst hack in recent memory -- the breach of JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s databanks in the summer of 2014. Last June, hackers penetrated the corporate network of JPMorgan -- the largest U.S. bank, which had declared two months earlier that it would invest a quarter-billion dollars a year on cybersecurity. The hackers managed to mine gigabytes worth of information, including customer account data, undetected until August. A Bloomberg article on Wednesday linked the two Israeli suspects to the 2014 JPMorgan hack. According to the charges against them, they also hacked into other financial institutions. At their remand hearing, the prosecution requested that the two remain in custody rather than being released to house arrest. The argument was that since their alleged crimes were so severe, and the potential sentence so heavy, should they be extradited to the U.S. where the charges against them have already been filed, they posed a greater flight risk. Judge Shmuel Herbst rejected the defense team's requests and extended the suspects' remand. "These infractions, according to the indictment that has been filed, have yielded massive earnings and were allegedly committed in a very sophisticated manner," he said. "The more severe the indictment, the harsher the penalty attached to the crimes, the more necessary remand becomes due to flight risk." "The lives and families of the suspects may indeed be firmly planted in Israel, but with many years of incarceration hovering over them, flight becomes a realistic and worthwhile option," he added.
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שיתוף כתבה
Israeli hackers linked to JPMorgan hack also suspected of illegal gambling
Indictment filed against Israelis Gery Shalon, 31, and Ziv Orenstein, 40, in state of New York includes charges of fraud, money laundering, identity theft • Search of one of suspects' property yields 2 million shekels in cash, increasing fear of flight.