A binary options CEO sentenced to 22 years for a $145 million scheme
Lee Elbaz, CEO of the Israel-based Yukom Communications, was convicted at trial in August 2019 of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud for orchestrating a scheme that sold binary options to investors worldwide through the websites BinaryBook and BigOption, and was sentenced in December 2019 to 22 years in federal prison and later ordered to pay $28 million in restitution. Victims described at sentencing included retirees who lost their entire life savings, IRA funds and 401(k) accounts.
- Year
- 2019
- Where
- IL, United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $145.0 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Binary options fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-30
The facts, as recorded
- The CFTC's parallel civil complaint, filed August 12, 2019, alleged Yukom Communications Ltd. and related entities Linkopia Mauritius Ltd., Wirestech Limited (d/b/a BigOption) and WSB Investments Ltd. (d/b/a BinaryBook) fraudulently solicited more than $103 million from customers, with approximately 95 percent of customers losing money.
- Elbaz was indicted March 22, 2018 in the US District Court for the District of Maryland (Docket No. 18-cr-00157) and, following a three-week jury trial, was convicted on August 7, 2019 of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud.
- Prosecutors said the total fraud reached approximately $145 million; U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang sentenced Elbaz on December 19, 2019 to 22 years in prison and, separately, ordered $28 million in restitution.
- At sentencing, the court heard from named victims including James Freeman, 67, who lost $304,000, his entire life savings, and a victim identified as Hanow, who lost $175,000 including retirement funds and took a job as a truck driver afterward.
- Prosecutor Henry Van Dyck told the court 'nobody was looking out for these investors, they were rooting against them'; Judge Chuang called it 'a very significant crime with significant harm to victims.'
- Two named co-conspirators, Yossi Herzog and Yakov Cohen, remained at large at the time of Elbaz's 2019 sentencing. Cohen was later apprehended, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and was sentenced on August 15, 2024 to 5.5 years in prison, with $7 million in restitution ordered in January 2025.
Why this case matters
This is the most severe criminal sentence documented on this page and the clearest evidence that binary options fraud is treated by US prosecutors as serious financial crime, not a regulatory technicality. It is also the case with the most detailed public record of individual harm: named retirees, specific dollar losses, and a judge’s own words about the damage done.
The company behind the brands
Yukom Communications did not present itself to customers as “Yukom.” It operated the trading brands BinaryBook and BigOption, employing sales staff who gave investors false names, false qualifications and a false claim to be calling from London, while managing a platform the CFTC alleged was rigged so that the company profited whenever a customer lost.
Real victims, named in court
At sentencing, prosecutors and the judge described specific people, not statistics: a 67-year-old who lost his entire life savings of $304,000, and another victim who lost $175,000 drawn partly from retirement accounts and had to take a truck-driving job to recover financially. This is the level of individual harm regulators point to when they argue for a lengthy sentence in a fraud case with no single, identifiable “crime scene.”
Accountability that took years to reach everyone involved
Elbaz was the only member of the Yukom network sentenced to prison at the time of her own 2019 hearing; two named co-conspirators, Yossi Herzog and Yakov Cohen, were still at large. Cohen was eventually caught and sentenced separately five years later, in August 2024, illustrating how long full accountability for a single scheme can take to arrive.
The caveat
Elbaz’s conviction followed a full jury trial and is a matter of adjudicated fact, not a settlement or an unproven allegation. The $145 million total figure and some scheme details reflect prosecutors’ own characterization at trial and sentencing; Yossi Herzog, named in the underlying CFTC complaint alongside Elbaz and Cohen, has not been reported as convicted or sentenced, and any description of his conduct remains an allegation rather than an adjudicated fact.
Sources
- United States v. Lee Elbaz. US Department of Justice, Criminal Division. Accessed 2026-09-30. Supports: The indictment date, docket number, court, and the four wire fraud and conspiracy charges.
- US jails Israeli binary options fraudster Lee Elbaz for 22 years; must repay $28m. The Times of Israel. Accessed 2026-09-30. Supports: The conviction and sentencing dates, the 22-year sentence, the $28 million restitution figure, the named victims and their individual losses, the judge's and prosecutor's quotes, and the status of Herzog and Cohen as at-large co-conspirators.
- CFTC Charges International Enterprise with Operating a $103 Million Fraudulent Binary Options Trading Scheme. US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Accessed 2026-09-30. Supports: The Yukom Communications corporate structure, the BinaryBook and BigOption brand names, the $103 million figure and the 95 percent customer loss rate.
- Federal Court Orders Israeli Man to Disgorge $7 Million in Gains from Fraudulent Binary Options Scheme. US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Accessed 2026-09-30. Supports: Yakov Cohen's guilty plea, his August 2024 sentencing to 5.5 years, and the January 2025 restitution order of $7 million.