US Court refuses to grant immunity to Yossi Herzog in binary options fraud case
The Maryland District Court nixed Lee Elbaz’s motion for granting immunity to several witnesses, including Yossi Herzog, the owner of Israeli-based Yukom Communications where Elbaz also worked.
Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the Maryland District Court has denied a motion by Lee Elbaz, the former CEO of Israeli-based Yukom Communications, for granting immunity to several individuals she wanted to call as witnesses, including Yossi Herzog, the owner of Yukom.
In an order signed on July 11, 2019, and made available to FinanceFeeds today, the Judge says that Lee Elbaz’s Motion to Compel Immunity or, in the Alternative, for an Instruction on Missing Witnesses is denied. The order did not elaborate on the reasons for the Court’s decision. These matters were discussed at the July 11, 2019 Pre-Trial Conference.
Let’s recall that Elbaz wanted immunity to be granted to Herzog and three other witnesses – Elad Bigelman, Nissim Alfasi, and Chanan Tabarko. On June 11, 2019, about one week before the scheduled depositions and approximately one month before trial, the Government contacted counsel for Mr. Herzog, Mr. Bigelman, and Mr. Alfasi and informed them that all three individuals had been charged in the United States in a sealed indictment. On the afternoon of June 12, 2019, the day following the calls by the Government to counsel for the witness apprising them of the sealed charges, the district court partially unsealed the indictment against Mr. Herzog, Mr. Bigelman, and Mr. Alfasi, making the charges against them publicly available for the first time.
On June 14, 2019, counsel for Mr. Herzog, Mr. Bigelman, Mr. Alfasi, and Mr. Tabarko informed counsel that their clients are no longer willing to appear voluntarily for their scheduled depositions without immunity.
In the document filed on July 2, 2019, Elbaz argued that immunity for defense witnesses is an appropriate remedy for misconduct or overreaching. She said that overreaching is an apt description of the Government’s communications with counsel for the deponents. The Government contended that its actions were taken in consultation with Judge Xinis.
Let’s recall that the Indictment charges Lee Elbaz with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud. The Indictment alleges that Elbaz participated for over three years (from approximately May 2014 and continuing through approximately June 2017) in a fraudulent scheme involving the sale and marketing of binary options – including as the Chief Executive Officer of Yukom Communications. Yukom was an Israel-based business that provided sales and marketing services, including investor “retention services,” for two internet-based businesses that sold and marketed binary options with the brand names BinaryBook and BigOption.
The trial in this case is set to commence on July 16, 2019.
