2,500 victims of binary options fraud to sue in London

Simona Weinglass, timesofisrael.com

Law firm claims many of the 120 alleged scammers have ties to Israel, pleads with Israel’s Justice Ministry to help bring them to justice

Wolfsfeld image from

Excerpt:

International lawyer Gabriele Giambrone last week sent a letter to Israel’s Justice Ministry informing it that his firm represents 2,500 clients allegedly defrauded by binary options and forex companies. Many of these companies operate from Israel, he wrote, and pleaded for Israel’s help in bringing them to justice. ...

Giambrone said his clients who were allegedly defrauded by Israeli binary options firms include many residents of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. ...

What happens if not just a handful of Arab clients, but thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, realize they were defrauded by people calling from Israel?

“It’s certainly not good for Israel,” said Gadi Wolfsfeld, a professor of political communication and hasbara (public diplomacy) at IDC-Herzliya. However, he added, from a diplomatic point of view, most Jews and Arabs think whatever they think about the (Israeli-Arab) conflict and a single event will not change those views over the long term.

Nevertheless, Wolfsfeld was optimistic, perhaps naively given the past decade’s inaction, about the government’s motivation to crack down. “If it’s against the law, the Israeli authorities will shut them down. If there are Israeli companies that are breaking the law, I don’t think any government would have any problem going after them.” ...