Yossi Engel, Wire Fraud, California 2024

Related Federal Cases

Letitia James Challenges ICE Raids, Los Angeles CA, 2023 · California
Buffalo Man Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud, Identity Theft · Texas
Nigerian Hacker Pleads Guilty to $6.5M Wire Fraud Scheme · Texas
Los Angeles Duo Guilty of $2.7M Instagram Bank Heist · New York
Watervliet Woman Faces Wire Fraud Charges for Pandemic Aid Swindle · Arizona

Table of Contents

LOS ANGELES

A former resident of the Fairfax District of Los Angeles has been arrested on a criminal complaint alleging he defrauded investors, primarily members of the Orthodox Jewish community, by inducing them into investing millions of dollars in his security camera business and his purported real estate ventures in Israel.

Yossi Engel, 35, who moved to Israel in March 2021 but temporarily returned to the Los Angeles area last month, is charged with one count of wire fraud. Engel was arrested Wednesday night at Los Angeles International Airport as he was attempting to leave the country.

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, Engel orchestrated a scheme in which he made false representations and used forged documents to induce victims to make investments in and provide loans for iWitness Tech Inc., a Hancock Park-based security camera company and for properties Engel falsely claimed to own and be developing in Israel.

From September 2018 to January 2021, Engel allegedly used his community relationships to defraud victims, who primarily came from the Orthodox Jewish communities in the Los Angeles and New York areas. Engel allegedly claimed to need money in the form of short-term loans with high rates of return for iWitness’ business operations, namely the purported purchase and installation of security cameras for its customers.

Engel offered short-term investments and loans in iWitness that ranged from $15,000 to $1.3 million. The investments and loans were for two weeks to six months and would purportedly provide investors with 10% to 60% annualized interest, according to the affidavit. Victims were duped, in part, by being shown copies of false and fraudulent invoices of work iWitness purportedly did with other companies.

Engel told victims that iWitness was a large business with many clients, but in fact it did not have as much business as he claimed, and work was so slack that at times iWitness employees sat around waiting for work while Engel slept on a couch, the affidavit states.

The FBI has identified losses of approximately $5 million. The federal criminal investigation is continuing. Engel is expected to make his initial court appearance this afternoon in United States District Court.