Another US-Israeli money laundering ring exposed

author Tuesday August 04, 2009 10:26author by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News Report this post to the editors

Just a week after a massive corruption ring was indicted in the US, another crime ring has been broken up inside Israel, with six Israelis and one US citizen arrested Monday in Ramat Gan. The seven apparently operated scams and money laundering schemes that included using the identities of inmates.

The seven men will be charged with tax fraud in the US, according to a statement by US and Israeli authorities. They were indicted in Israeli court for money laundering, fraud and forgery.

Marvin Berkowitz, a tax expert from the US who holds dual Israeli-US citizenship, was charged as the ringleader of the scam, which allegedly resulted in tens of millions of dollars in losses to the US government. Israeli authorities say that more arrests are likely in the case.

This is the second wave of arrests in the case, which began with nine arrests six months ago. It follows a massive sweep of US-Israeli crime syndicates in New Jersey, USA last week, which included public officials and rabbis.

In the current round of arrests, the arrestees are suspected of engaging in several money scams, based out of the Diamond District in Ramat Gan Israel, in which they lured elderly people in the US to send money as 'fees' to obtain fake lottery winnings. They allegedly also used the ID numbers of incarcerated individuals to receive tax refunds worth up to $12 million USD.

http://www.imemc.org/article/61284