Yukom Case – Boiler room agent Yair Hadar sentenced to 8 months prison, community service and $1.2 million restitution payment

On Monday, another Boiler Room agent from the Yukom scheme was sentenced in the USA. New York-born Israeli Yair Hadar was sentenced to 8 months in prison, $1.2 million in restitution and 100 hours community service. Law360 reported on the sentencing last night.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang gave Yair Hadar an eight-month prison sentence for his participation in Yukom’s binary options fraud scheme. Even though Hadar and his attorneys had lobbied for leniency, Judge Chuang noted that the sentence is already much lower than the three to four years that Hadar could have received. Furthermore, Judge Chuang argued that the scam cheated many people out of most of their savings.

I wish you could have seen what this has done to the victims. In some ways, stealing from an office is worse than stealing from someone on the street.

Judge Theodore D. Chuang

After his prison time, Hadar will be required to complete 100 hours of community service and will have to pay back $1.2 million in restitution jointly with Elbaz.

Lee Elbaz, the CEO of the Yukom scheme has been found guilty of binary options fraud by a grand jury early August 2019. She is due to be sentenced on December 9, 2019. IAs one of the heads of this binary options fraud scheme, Elbaz is facing life imprisonment. Israeli national Shira Uzan, 38, also testified against Elbaz and is due to be sentenced next month. Like Hadar, Welles, and Mel, Uzan has been working as a boiler room agent for the Yukom fraud scheme.

Prison times for binary options perpetrators

• Last week, the California-born Israeli Liora Welles was sentenced to 14 months in prison and a restitution payment of more than $2.2 million with Judge Chuang saying that she was particularly effective at coaxing money out of her victims.
• Early September 2019, the Israeli Lissa Mel has been sentenced to 12 months in prison and a restitution payment of more than $288,000.

The two beneficial owners of the Yukom schema, Yossi Herzog and Kobi Cohen, are also indicted. As the news site ThisIsMoney reported, Herzog and Cohen financed a luxurious life with the millions of small investors. The two are not currently in the USA.