Sentencing of ex-Yukom employees accused of binary options fraud gets postponed
The sentencing of Liora Welles and Shira Uzan is postponed until September 20, 2019.
The scale of the binary options fraud committed by Israeli-based Yukom Communications has yet to become clear. A number of individuals associated with the firm, including its CEO Lee Elbaz, are facing charges in the United States. But the scope of the proceedings is larger and is targeting other employees of Yukom too.
As FinanceFeeds has reported, there are several cases linked to that of Lee Elbaz. Two of these cases target Liora Welles and Shira Uzan.
Liora Welles is also known as “Lindsay Cole,” “Lindsay Wells,” and “Lindsay Taylor”. She pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud charged in a criminal information on December 19, 2018.
Shira Uzan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud charged in a criminal information on December 21, 2018.
Both defendants are former employees of Yukom Communications – an entity that provided investor “retention” services for two websites, known as BinaryBook and BigOption, promoting and marketing binary options. Elbaz, along with her co-conspirators and subordinates, is said to have misled investors using BinaryBook and BigOption by falsely claiming to represent the interests of investors but that, in fact, the owners of BinaryBook and BigOption profited when investors lost money.
Uzan and Welles testified in the criminal proceedings against Elbaz. Ms. Uzan, for instance, testified that the defendant, Lee Elbaz, hired her and directed her to participate in a training course when she started working at Yukom. Among other things, Ms. Uzan testified that she lied to clients about whether she had experience in financial markets (telling them she had 15 years of experience) and about how Yukom made money (telling clients she was paid commissions on winning trades). Ms. Uzan further testified and “after the one week of the training course, she continued to have training by the managers, by the CEO.”
Earlier this month, Elbaz was convicted of wire fraud.
Now, the sentencing of Welles and Uzan is postponed at the request of the US Government. The sentencing of the defendants, which was originally scheduled for August 16, 2019, is continued to September 20, 2019 before Judge Theodore D. Chuang.
