Alleged Israeli mob boss Meir Abergil has signed a plea bargain and is set to return to Israel after being extradited to the U.S. last year for extortion and blackmail. According to the soon-to-be published plea bargain with U.S. authorities, Abergil admitted to extortion and blackmail of up to $1.35 million from criminal Asi Vaknin, and will serve a sentence of 42 months. U.S. authorities dropped charges of belonging to a criminal organization and money laundering. The time Abergil served will be deducted from his sentence in Israel and the U.S., alongside an automatic deduction of 15 percent that is customary in the U.S. Meir's brother Itzhak did not reach a plea bargain, and is set to be tried in the U.S. Abergil's defense attorney in the U.S. and his attorneys in Israel, Avigdor Feldman and Avi Amiram, negotiated with U.S. authorities over the past two years in order to reach an agreement for a plea bargain. "We protested for two years that the array of evidence against Meir did not warrant his extradition. We are happy to report that the U.S. prosecution has come to the same conclusion," Aviram said on Saturday. In December 2010 Israel's Supreme Court denied an appeal by the Abergil brothers and three of their associates, Sasson Barashi, Moshe Malul and Israel Oziva, not to be extradited after facing serious charges in California. The extradition request was based on an indictment against the five in California in 2008, where they are charged with felonies including the alleged murder of drug dealer Sammy Atias in Los Angeles, money laundering in the Trade Bank embezzlement scandal of 2002 (in which over $74.5 million was embezzled by bank employees and led to the bank's collapse), drug dealing, extortion and belonging to a criminal organization. Israel's Police is monitoring the plea bargain closely, and the Abergil family is under surveillance by Israel's International Crime Unit ("YAHBAL"). The Abergil organization is known to have a bitter rivalry with the Abutbul crime organization and Shalom Domrani's syndicate. Despite the rivalries police believe that Abergil's return to Israel will not spark a mob war, saying that Meir is less boisterous than his brother and has worked to establish himself as a legitimate businessman and detached himself from the underworld.
