Israeli lawyer Guy Yuval Co- Founder and partner – Yuval-Aron & Associates law firm, and his partners: Ori Arad, Racheli Unger and Zvi Appel have found themselves embroiled in a series of troubling allegations involving Bitcoin theft and fraud.
According to the Israeli newspaper Globes, Israeli lawyer Guy Yuval is facing accusations of stealing 2,300 bitcoins, worth an estimated $100 million, from his client. A middleman has been named Miki Hefetz, as well as other lawyers.
The allegations against Yuval were first made by a former client, Jacques Henry Vygodatsky, who is a Belgian-Israeli businessman. Vygodatsky claims that he gave $100 million in bitcoin in 2021 to trustees (Guy Yuval, Ori Arad & Racheli Unger).
Allegedly, Vygodatsky granted full access to the Bitcoin wallet to the trustees, who realized that Vygodatsky is distressed, and the source of Bitcoin is not clear. The tree lawyers took advantage of the situation and set a cunning plan to steal the Bitcoin assuming that Vygodatsky will not sue them. The three lawyers allegedly used people from the criminal world to seek protection from scammed victims.
The gravity of the situation is magnified by the value of the stolen Bitcoins, attracting attention from both the cryptocurrency and legal communities. The accusations have prompted further scrutiny into Guy Yuval’s actions.
One of the main focal points of the allegations against Guy Yuval and his partners is their connections to the Opal Payments Scheme. The scheme, marketed as a secure payment solution, soon raised suspicion among investors. Cyber rating agency PayRate42 has placed Opal on its Orange Compliance list.
Guy Yuval and Zvi Appel are beneficiary owners of OPAL FINTECH PTE. LTD. formerly known as KANZ REMIT PTE. LTD. a company with paid up capital of over $7 Million SGD. Zvi Appel a shareholder and Director at of OPAL FINTECH PTE. LTD recently relocated to Singapore.
Additional worth mentioning shareholders are: Ron Rothschild, former executive at Israel Tax Authority (ITA) and David Arzi, former VP at Israel Air Industries. PM’s Benjamin Netanyahu former attorney David Shimron, filed NIS 425,000 libel suit against David Arzi, who made assertion in video, claiming PM’s wife has veto on security issues.
Further digging into the group’s holding in other entities we found that Guy Yuval and Ori Arad are also shareholders at KANZBITAQA PTE. LTD. a Singapore based entity with paid up capital of $13,850,000USD. The registered shareholder of this entity is Mr. Shaun, Poh Renyu, KANZBITAQA PTE. LTD. primary activity is development of software and applications, however, the company has a cautionary note on a real estate asset in Israel. The cautionary note implies that KANZBITAQA PTE. LTD. is a secured creditor for a real estate asset in Israel owned by Dr. Michael Schneidman.
Guy Yuval and Ori Arad are also shareholders at GOYA INVESTMENTS PTE. LTD. another Singapore registered entity. Primary activity of Goya Investments is real estate activities on a fee or commission basis, while the secondary activity is development of software and applications.
The lawsuit against Yuval is still pending as the legal proceedings continue, and as time passes more leading accountants are questioned regarding their involvement, for example Menachem Unger, the father of Racheli Unger. It remains to be seen how these cases will unfold and what consequences they will have for Guy Yuval and the affected investors.
If the above is not enough, the Financial Times has recently filed a lawsuit against Guy Yuval and Ori Arad for trademark infringement. The lawsuit alleges that Yuval and Arad registered a trademark for the name CORE-FT, an application for financial management and investment management.
Source: https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001426320
