(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Bloomberg published a bombshell investigation Wednesday about an Israeli cybercriminal who scammed innocent victims out of untold millions of dollars while working as an FBI informant.
Citing interviews with some 50 anonymous government officials, Bloomberg reported that European law enforcement agencies are currently investigating the hacker-informant, Gery Shalon.
According to Bloomberg, Shalon started his criminal career running online gambling websites and an illegal cryptocurrency exchange, laundering money for hackers and sellers of fake pharmaceuticals.
Shalon was arrested in 2015, and started cooperating with the feds soon thereafter. “But that wasn’t all he did, according to police and prosecutors in Europe,” Bloomberg said.
“They have evidence that during his time as a US cooperator, Shalon continued to run a substantial criminal operation targeting tens of thousands of European victims. The question, they say, is whether the FBI was running Gery Shalon or Shalon was running the FBI,” Bloomberg reported.
According to the report, Shalon gave the government details about Russian money laundering, cyber kingpins and global hacking operations.
“Most important, he delivered something the FBI and US intelligence agencies had made one of their highest priorities: a look inside Russian hacking and cyber operations when concerns over those activities were running at an all-time high,” Bloomberg added.
Due to his cooperation, Shalon reportedly spent just 10 months in New York jail despite facing 33 federal charges that could’ve landed him in prison for decades.
“Shalon reportedly worked from there with an FBI handler until at least January 2021, when he was sentenced to time served. After vacationing with his family in Miami and Las Vegas, Shalon returned to Israel, where he now lives in an exclusive suburb of Tel Aviv,” Bloomberg reported.
European authorities are reportedly going to announce whether they’re charging Shalon in the coming months. The FBI declined to comment for Bloomberg’s story.
Meanwhile, Shalon still likely has millions of dollars hidden away, according to Bloomberg.
“The $400 million the Justice Department managed to seize from him? ‘That’s what they were able to find. He knows how to hide it,'” Bloomberg concluded, quoting one of Shalon’s rabbis.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
