Amir Bramly has been convicted in the Tel Aviv District Court, after Judge Khaled Kaboub found that he deceived and defrauded investors.
The court found that the fraud amounted to NIS 340 million, and that Bramly was "the mover and shaker who decided matters." Bramley was indicted in 2016 on charges of theft by a company officer, to the tune of over NIS 400 million, fraudulent receiving in aggravated circumstances, raising money without a prospectus, forgery, and money laundering.
Bramly was the founder, owner and chairman of holding company Rubicon Business Group and of non-bank finance firm Kela Fund. He was accused of raising money on the basis of false presentations, promising investors a tempting combination of high returns and low risk. In fact, he was running a Ponzi scheme, financing returns to existing investors from money from new investors.
"Bramly continued to raise money in this way, concealing from investors in Kela Fund the fact that for the whole of the relevant period the activity of Rubicon as described in the indictment was loss-making and did not yield a positive cash flow to Rubicon or Kela, and the company had a negative shareholders' equity."
Bramly, whom the judge described as "charming but manipulative", was also accused of mixing investors' funds with his private assets and investments of Rubicon.
Bramly was arrested last August until the end of proceedings against him. A new investigation was recently opened by the Israel Securities Authority into allegations that he committed fraud and money laundering offences against dozens of investors in similar fashion to the current case.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 13, 2020
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