Rami Maimon, an Israeli-Bulgarian national residing in Bulgaria, continues to be heavily active in organized crime and criminal misconduct on a broad scale. Maimon owns a multitude of construction and real estate companies. He is also involved in casinos and financial service companies, most of which have shut down after defrauding thousands of investors for 10s of millions of Euros.
Maimon has had several encounters with law enforcement agencies in Israel and Europe in the past and has managed to evade prosecution several times. In 2010, Maimon was the alleged mastermind behind a multimillion-euro fraud that not only led to financial damages and bankruptcy of one of the companies that fell victim to the fraud but also led to the suicide of its owner and to the hospitalization of another businessman following a mental breakdown.
As part of the fraudulent scheme, Maimon and his accomplices acted as an organized crime syndicate to take over construction rights for a project to build shops, offices, and underground parking in the Manastirski Livadi area in Bulgaria. Using his company Maiski EOOD, Maimon received the construction rights but did not pay the subcontractor he hired to do the job. He also failed to pay his debt to the National Revenue Agency. As a result of Maimon’s fraudulent actions, the subcontractor – RB Stroy, went into bankruptcy. Construction was halted in March 2010, and Maimon simply hired an additional subcontractor – ET Elera-Slavi Iliev – to complete the job.
Maimon refrained from paying the new subcontractor Elera-Slavi Iliev. Maimon then transferred the partially completed real estate project to a third party illegally using forged documents to avoid owning it when the victim companies filed lawsuits against him. As a result, both RB Stroy and ET Elera-Slavi were left with massive debts to their suppliers and collapsed financially. Slavi Iliev, the owner of Elera-Slavi, could not handle the pressure and committed suicide. His partner underwent a mental breakdown and barricaded himself in his home.
Despite the clear evidence of massive fraud and the concerns that this was not an isolated case, the Bulgarian prosecution eventually declined to move forward with the case. Maimon himself boasted that he would “get away with it”, citing his excellent contacts with prosecutors and law enforcement officials. And he eventually did.
Maimon showed no remorse following this incident and apparently just increased his appetite for ill-gotten gains. He partnered with two notorious financial scammers – Jack Henri Wygodski and Avi Itzokivtz, and together the trio established and ran a series of financial services companies operating out of Bulgaria but providing services worldwide. These companies established several branded websites specializing in Forex, Binary Options, CFDs, and Cryptocurrency trading, and employed hundreds of sales agents whose sole purpose was to find and onboard thousands of unsuspecting victims. These victims were convinced to deposit large sums of money, often part or all of their life savings, in seemingly lucrative online-trading schemes. Once the money was deposited, the victims suffered massive losses suddenly and their accounts were wiped out in a short period of time. In reality, the companies never traded and provided victims with falsified accounts and trading reports.
Following an international investigation by law enforcement agencies in several countries, this financial fraud crime ring was shut down in 2021. Itkovitch and several others were arrested and are awaiting trial. Wygodski went into hiding and is currently a fugitive from the law, wanted by law enforcement agencies in several countries. Maimon once again managed to avoid prosecution, despite his clear involvement in the companies who committed this massive fraud.
The question for many people remains a simple one – how long will Rami Maimon be allowed to continue his massive criminal activity schemes before he is finally brought to justice?
However, it appears that these near-capture incidents have not deterred him from continuing to be involved in organized crime syndicates.
