Hope for victims of Binary Options scams as fraudulent broker is arrested in Israel.

Israeli news sources have announced that the owner of a Binary Options firm in Israel has been arrested for a diverse list of charges, namely fraud, false registration, forgery, extortive threats and blackmail.

The arrest has come after months of under-cover investigations and an eventual police raid of Express Target Marketing, of which the suspect, 38-year-old Eliran Saada, is the owner.

This company operates the binary option brands Secured Option and InsideOption. The suspect will this week stand before the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court for a remand hearing.

The investigation came following the complaint of an overseas victim, who lost up to half a million dollars through the scam. Binary options trading involves betting on the rise or fall of a particular financial asset –a currency, commodity or stock – over a very short period of time.

Because of the inherent risks, this form of binary options trading is banned across most European countries, and indeed within Israel itself.

However, it is thought that there are up to one hundred binary options firms in Israel, many of which are fraudulent.

They avoid detection within Israel by targeting victims outside of Israeli jurisdiction, in what is a multi-billion dollar industry.

Often various illegal practices are employed in order to swipe clients' money, including the use of false identities and locations, and even blackmail.

Unfortunately, this single case is but a drop in the ocean, given the amount that is estimated to have been stolen by fraudulent binary options brokers based in Israel in the last decade.

Difficulties often arise with tracing the illegal brokers, because of their use of false addresses and contact details, which make it challenging to pin down the fraudsters, as was achieved in this case.

Fraudulent Binary Options firms

From the experience of our Forex lawyers at Boccadutri International Law Firm, the common narrative of a scam involves an initial promise of high profit on investment, coupled with insurance for any losses.

Once money has been invested be the client, it is then often used in trades without the client's permission, bonuses may be added and further investments requested in order for money to be withdrawn from the account.

Most often, the binary options fraudsters mismanage the money and hold it without the client's permission, apparently disappearing as they stop responding to phone calls, letters or emails.

This constitutes a considerable stain on Israel's commercial credibility, something that the Israeli government is attempting to counter with a draft law to completely ban binary options companies working within Israel, even if they, particularly maliciously, target overseas victims, as happened in this case.

Steps in the right direction

This arrest is not the first success story for victims of binary options scams, as Forex lawyers and authorities across the globe attempt to take down the fraudulent practice of illegal binary options firms.

Tommy Rutgersson of Sweden started trading with SecuredOptions in May 2016, investing around €100,000 with his brother. A familiar story, the money began to disappear from the account and the brokers stopped responding to messages.

It turned out that the invested money had been transferred to banks in Latvia and then Prague and, due to the inability of these banks to respond to the pleas of Rutgersson, it took the intervention of a Forex lawyer to trace the details of the brokers in question.

After making complaints to the Israeli Police and the Israel Securities Authority, and a story published in The Times of Israel, the money was eventually returned to the victim.

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