Author of $150 million scam soon to be tried in Israel

Israeli banknotes Getty Images/Bloomberg Creative - Bloomberg Creative

Text by: Michel Paul

2 mins

Michael Ben-Ari, an American-Israeli businessman was extradited from Bosnia to Israel over the Christmas weekend.

This is the author of a huge scam, the largest ever carried out in Israel to date.

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From our correspondent in Jerusalem

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The media dubbed him the "

", after the American scammer who had claimed a huge number of victims in Israel.

Michael Ben-Ari is accused of defrauding thousands of Israeli and American investors.

All for at least $150 million, at least that's the sum that has been advanced to date.

He used a classic Ponzi pyramid: a fraudulent financial arrangement which consists in remunerating the investments of the customers essentially by the funds provided by the new entrants.

A system that inevitably collapses more or less quickly.

Michael Ben-Ari would be the author of the largest fraud of this type ever carried out in Israel.

According to the victims' lawyers, almost all of the assets that were in the accounts of his investment company, Ever Green Fields Enterprises, were smuggled overseas.

Investors lost for some all their savings.

A fraud that lasted for fifteen years.

Ben-Ari, who is also known as Michael Greenfield, is accused of violating several Israeli mutual fund laws.

The businessman is also accused of money laundering.

A man who inspired confidence 

Michael Ben-Ari moved to Israel in 1981 from the United States.

He had since held important positions in a bank and a chain of supermarkets before opening his own company.

He had a very high standard of living and was known to throw parties at his home in Tel Aviv.

Israeli police arrested Ben-Ari in April 2021, but he managed to flee the country to Bosnia a month later using a passport borrowed from a friend of his after being placed under house arrest.

He had to post a bond of 2 million shekels, or about 500,000 euros.

His trial in Israel is expected to begin very soon.

More than 750 investors filed civil suits.

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