The cyber department of the State Attorney's Office has filed an indictment for aggravated theft, attempted theft, submitting false information, fraud, and deception with intent to evade paying taxes.
According to the indictment, the defendant, who works as a freelancer at a financial consulting firm, managed to access the personal information of 16 business owners on the Tax Authority website. 11 of the 16 were once the defendant's clients. The defendant then filed on behalf of the complainants requests for self-employment grants due to having suffered a decline in business activities as a result of the coronavirus, and manually altered their bank account details in order to direct the grants to his private bank account. As a result of his actions, the defendant stole a total of approximately NIS 590,881, and attempted to steal an additional NIS 12,000.
The defendant also made large-scale bank transfers to the bank accounts of his wife, father, and business partners, and made numerous cash withdrawals from his bank account. He is also accused of money laundering to the tune of over half a million shekels, and of not reporting his "income" to the tax authorities.