Lee Elbaz, The G-Men Are Coming To Get You
Joint Task Force Raids Israeli Based Tech Provider
The FBI raided the headquarters of a Israeli based binary options technology provider SpotOption as part of an ongoing investigation. The raid was conducted alongside Israeli police in an effort to garner more evidence against Lee Elbaz. Elbaz is CEO of Yukom, the power behind such brokers as Eagle Options and Binary Book, located in Ramat Gan, Israel.
The investigation began some time ago but was made public last year when Elbaz was arrested in NY City on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud. It began with Eagle Option and Binary Book, both were suspected and later proven to be soliciting to and accepting US clients. Information obtained through those investigations and from Google led to Elbaz.
Binary Book alone is thought to have taken in more than $98.9 million in the two years it was operational. The amount of that taken from US clients has not been divulged at this time but it is thought to be considerable. Both brokers and the tech provider have already shut down operations in Israel due to the ban on binary options but are still available to other traders.
Israel enacted a complete ban on binary options last year in its effort to fight fraud. The new laws prohibit the advertising of binary inside and outside of Israel, the trading of binary options inside Israel, the export of trading technology outside the country and the operation of brokers. This has effectively shut down a large portion of the industry but done little to stop the global problem of binary options fraud. Regulators around the world continue to pump out warnings for non-regulated brokers.
Binary Options Fights Back In Israel
Ironically enough, a petition from Yukom to the Israeli supreme court may have opened the door for binary options to make a come back. The petition states the ban on all things binary is contrary to the ideals of Israel and imposes undue hardness on those seeking to earn a living. It goes on to point out that many nations around the world have chosen to accept and regulate binary options, an options the local regulators chose not to pursue. Further, the petition states that the regulator overstepped its bounds when it imposed restrictions on Israeli citizens operating in foreign nations where binary was legal. The supreme court has asked the regulators to clarify why they have chosen to take this course of action and why the law should not be overturned in its entirety.
If the law gets overturned or reshaped in some way it could reinvigorate the binary options industry. Even so, there will still be problems without regulation. Israel is obviously a hot bed of the industry, most of the technology and supporting businesses are from that country, if it is allowed to come back the chances of frauds will likely increase too. The way to prevent this is for the nation to swing the other way, embrace binary, regulate it and help make it the fun trading experience the market has wanted all along.