Israelis media reports confirm FinTelegrams reports regarding the German request regarding the Israeli lawyer David Bar-El. According to Posta, the International Department of the State Attorney’s Office confirmed that David Bar-El, 37, a citizen of Israel and Georgia, is in the process of being deported to Germany for prosecution in the GetFinancial Case. The German prosecutor Markus Karmann leads the case. David Bar-El is the brother-in-law of cybercrime mastermind Gery Shalon.
Gery Shalon in Europe
Gery Shalon is currently charged in the US with various cybercrime activities. In Europe, Shalon was active with his partners Vladimir Smirnov, Russia, and Gal Barak, Israel, through the cybercrime organization E&G Bulgaria. Barak was sentenced to several years in prison and around €4 million in restitution payments for this in September 2020. According to information available to FinTelegram, German authorities are investigating both Gal Barak and Gery Shalon.
The GetFinancial Case
| Scam | Individuals | Entities |
|---|---|---|
| All | David Bar-El | law firm |
| GetFinancial | Kobi Gover Sharon Hazan Alex Raber | Get Financial Markets Ltd, SVG; Astroro Investments Limited, Cyprus; the Cyprus law firm Playbell & Co Services Ltd with the lawyer Varnavas Playbell is registered as a director; Get Media Services Ltd, UK; |
| TradeSolid (report here) | Kobi Gover Nadav Gover Chen Malka | G.M. Marketing Group Ltd, Marshall Islands; G.M. Software Solutions Ltd, United Kingdom; MGCN Marketing Ltd, Cyprus; |
| IntegraOption (report here) | Kobi Gover Nadav Gover Chen Malka | C.G Capital Investments Limited; |
| ProfitsTrade (report here) | ProfitsTrade Ltd, Commonwealth of Dominica; |
According to the German extradition request submitted by Germany, Bar-El was part of a cybercrime organization that operated a vast portfolio of broker scams between 2015 and at least until October 2021. Among these scams are GetFinancial, IntegraOption, SolidCFD, TradeSolid, BitCapitalMarkets, MyCoinbanking, ProCapitalmarkets, Profitstrade, Acceptrade, and Gainfintech.
The cybercrime organization operated boiler rooms in Israel, Georgia, Armenia, and Moldova. The investigators estimate that tens of millions of euros have been stolen from victims.
David Bar-El is a lawyer by profession who has been alleged to have been involved in the GetFinancial cybercrime organization since the beginning of 2017. Purportedly, he has been one of the decision-makers and received huge sums of money from the fraudulent funds in bank accounts controlled by him in Israel and Georgia. These funds were falsely labeled as payment of fees for legal work.
Arrests and extraditions
Bar-El was arrested this week, and the arrest follows the arrest in October 2021 together with Pavel Kotler, Yuri Dashevsky, Nimrod Blechman, and Chen Malka. In addition, the Israeli citizens Nadav Gober and Yaakov Gober have been arrested in other jurisdictions and extradited to Germany. David Bar-El is represented by attorneys Yuval Sasson and Eitan Kidron.
