Israeli – Romanian crime ring taken into custody for brutal extortion, Bucharest shopping mall administrator among victims

Four Israelis and three Romanians have been arrested for allegedly threatening and beating several business people in an alleged loan sharking and extortion scheme. One of the people who filed complaints against the group was an Israeli citizen, Mikael Harfi, who is the administrator of Grand Arena shopping mall in Bucharest. The man said he was threatened into signing a fictitious EUR 900,000 services contract, then beaten for hours in a row after being kidnapped and sequestered in June 2013. Eventually he paid the group some EUR 93,000 in 'protection taxes', after being held at gun point. He had been asked EUR 2 million in total. Another victim was the esthetic surgeon Renert Gad Ofir, who has been threatened by the group at the request of a former business partner, Morad Iancu, now competitor, who wanted to recover some money and intimidate him. Another man said he was contacted by the crime group after a misunderstanding with a business partner and gave them a car, a gold watch and money, all in all some EUR 100,000. Another victim was asked to come to the house of one of the group members to repair a surveillance system, but was instead beaten and forced to pay some EUR 40,000. The members of the crime ring, Shimon Efraim, Kastro Charli, Erlith Nehemia, Malka Zosef, Mihai Mila, lawyer Angela Olteanu and Florin Păun were taken into custody for 29 days. The police searched the homes of 15 people, as well as a law firm which was used when one of the victims signed a fictitious contract. It appears the four Israeli citizens were the brain of the operations and were sometimes using Romanians for loan sharking enforcement. Many of the people involved in this crime ring had businesses on the side. For example, Erlith Nehemis, has a large casino business in Romania, while others, who were not taken into custody, also have gambling businesses locally. editor@romania-insider.com