Dual US-Israeli Citizen, Marvin Berkowitz, Indicted with 5 Israelis on Money Laundering, Fraud, and Forgery

Another US-Israeli money laundering ring exposed

Tuesday August 04, 2009 10:26 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

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.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.