Former Israeli TV star Lissa Mel, who pleaded guilty to her role in a 145 million USD fraud, run through the binary options websites BinaryBook.com and BigOption.com, will serve a prison term of 12 months and a day, and will also have to pay 288 024 USD as a restitution to her victims.
Lee Elbaz, CEO of Yukom Comms, convicted in the same fraud, will be sentenced in December. BinaryBook.com and BigOption.com were brands of Yukom Comms and Numaris Communication Ltd.
After serving her term, Lissa Mel, who signed a plea deal with the US Department of Justice back in January 2019, will be under supervised release for a term of two more years. The maximum sentence for the offense to which she pleaded guilty – conspiracy to commit wire fraud – is five years in prison.
Mel worked as a sales representative for Numaris Communication from July 2015 till November 2016 and according to the court papers induced investors “to deposit funds based on material misrepresentations, including lies about the fact that her interests were not aligned with those of investors, lies about the anticipated returns from binary options trading, lies about her qualifications and lies about investors’ ability to withdraw funds”, reads the “Stipulation of Facts”.
Also, according to the court papers she referred to herself as a “senior broker,” “account manager,” or “chief analyst,” employed by BinaryBook.com, and she used the alias Monica Sanders.
According to the plea agreement “the defendant communicated with more than ten investors and was directly responsible for approximately 288 024 USD in investor losses.”
Mel is among the fifteen employees of Yukom Communications Ltd. and Numaris Communication Ltd., prosecuted in the United States.
