The International Unit in the State Prosecutor’s Office filed a petition with the Jerusalem District Court seeking to declare Yigal Halvani and Pinchas Felix Atiya extraditable to Norway for prosecution for fraudulent offenses under aggravated circumstances, committed in the framework of a criminal organization.

Halvani and Atiya are citizens of Italy, while Atiya is also a citizen of Israel. According to the extradition requested received from Norway, between September 23, 2010 and October 8, 2019, the suspects committed major fraud against the Edison Norge AS Company in Norway, amounting to NIS 56,460,090.

The fraud was carried out by a means known as ‘social engineering’, or ‘defrauding the CEO’ in which the suspects allegedly contacted the manager of the Norwegian company, impersonating the manager of the parent company, which is based in Italy, using the details of the real manager, as well as a lawyer allegedly acting on behalf of the parent company.

The wanted persons instructed the complainant to transfer large sums of money to Hong Kong companies, allegedly for a transaction for the parent company. In accordance with the false guidelines, the complainant transferred carious amount of money, aggregated to $13.6 million and €500,000, totaling over NIS 56 million. To date, the funds transferred have not been returned to their owners.

Halvani and Atiya were arrested in Israel on October 16, 2019 in the framework of the Israeli investigation, and from October 27, 2019, there has been an extradition request from Norway pending. The prosecutor is now asking to hand them over to stand trial in Norway.

The investigation also involves Interpol and Israel Police.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)