The Israel Bar Association has appointed lawyer Sharon Nahari as its first-ever representative on international committees for extradition and global crimes in Europe and the US, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Until now, many of the influential committees and meetings of international lawyers on the issue, some of which made critical policy recommendations to their governments, had no Israeli representation.
Nahari is a legal expert in white-collar offenses, international law and extradition.
In addition, Gal Levertov, the former head of the Justice Ministry’s extradition department, along with Nahari were appointed as the Israel Bar Association’s Extradition Committee co-chairs.
“Adv. Nahari put us on the international map. He is expected to attend the upcoming conference of the extradition lawyers’ association in Europe, where he will discuss active and passive extradition, to and from Israel, said Israel Bar Association President Avi Himi.
He added that Nahari “will do so among an audience of academic lawyers and legal practitioners engaged in extradition law from around the world.”
“The issue of extradition has been gaining momentum,” said Nahari, noting, “especially in the context of computer crimes, cyber and Internet crimes, fraud, money laundering and white-collar fraud.”
The new Bar representative said that with an increased “focus on forex, binary options and cryptocurrency, extradition became especially relevant.”
Nahari added: “The number of requests to extradite Israelis to Europe and to the US increased lately. Some 300 such requests are submitted to Israel every year.”
Moreover, Nahari explained, “While the number of extradition requests spiked – specifically in the context of alleged economic offenses, i.e., investments in binary options, crypto and forex trading – so far, there was no Israeli representative who spoke on behalf” of Israel.
In October, the Israeli police arrested 26 Israelis on suspicion of committing fraud and money laundering offenses.
The offenses were disguised as forex transactions in digital currency and were allegedly committed against civilians abroad, to the tune of tens of millions of shekels.
The police operation was part of an undercover investigation in collaboration with the FBI.
Also in October, the police summoned 15 citizens for questioning at the request of the German government on suspicion of swindling hundreds of German citizens out of millions of shekels.
The scheme was centered around call centers from Israel as well as from other countries, which were used to persuade German citizens to invest large sums in fake corporate shares, foreign currencies and goods.
Later, the German citizens learned that their money had disappeared.
At a recent conference that Nahari attended in Berlin, discussion panels tackled issues of revocation of international arrest warrants and the removal of Interpol Red Notice alerts.
Additional discussion was held on issues of economic offenses, bribery, fraud and money laundering in extradition proceedings between European states.
Nahari will also be responsible for writing position papers and reviews for the Bar as well as for its law committee, holding seminars and lectures for lawyers.
Levertov obtained extraditions for the first time from countries such as Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Peru, Paraguay, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Thailand.
He also led the extradition processes of crime boss Ze’ev Rosenstein and serial child-abuser “Rabbi” Elior Chen.