{"id":650558,"date":"2026-10-18T23:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T23:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/650558\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T23:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T23:40:09","slug":"israeli-national-wanted-in-16-7-million-dubai-fraud-case-arrested-in-colombia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/650558\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli national wanted in $16.7 million Dubai fraud case arrested in Colombia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 61-year-old Israeli national known by the nickname “El Banquero” (The Banker) was arrested at El Dorado International Airport in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, in a joint operation by Colombian police and Interpol, authorities said. The suspect, identified as Mikhael Mezrahi, was detained following an Interpol Red Notice<\/a> issued against him.<\/p>\n

According to Colombian police, Mezrahi is wanted by authorities in the United Arab Emirates<\/a> to serve a prison sentence for fraud, money laundering, forgery, and the use of falsified private documents.<\/p>\n

Investigators allege that Mezrahi was connected to an international network responsible for defrauding a bank identified as Khartoum in Dubai of approximately $16.7 million using fraudulent financial documents. Following his arrest, he was transferred to Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office as extradition proceedings advanced.<\/p>\n

Colombian media reported that the suspect, identified in some reports by his full name, Mikhael Jaime Shamis Mezrahi, arrived in Bogot\u00e1 on a flight from Madrid and was preparing to board a connecting flight to Venezuela.<\/p>\n

According to the reports, he was carrying four passports issued by different countries. In addition to Israeli and Mexican citizenship, he reportedly also holds Canadian and Lebanese citizenship.<\/p>\n

The Colombian newspapers El Tiempo and Extra reported that Mezrahi was sentenced to five years in prison in the UAE in November 2022 before fleeing to Spain<\/a>, where the country’s National Court rejected an extradition request against him on various grounds.<\/p>\n

According to the reports, Mezrahi’s extensive business activities include securities companies in the United Kingdom and real estate and tourism projects in Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

He was also reportedly the subject of previous investigations in Canada related to drug trafficking. Investigators allege that proceeds from the fraud were transferred, in part, to a company he owned called WYB AG General Trading.<\/p>\n

Col. Alver Vicente Alfonso Sanabria, director of the Interpol investigation unit within Colombia’s National Police, described the arrest as a significant achievement in international law enforcement cooperation.<\/p>\n

“Mezrahi’s arrest is a significant result of the international police cooperation mechanisms led by Interpol’s National Central Bureau in Colombia<\/a>,” Sanabria said.<\/p>\n

“It demonstrates the country’s commitment to combating transnational organized crime,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 61-year-old Israeli national known by the nickname “El Banquero” (The Banker) was arrested at El Dorado International…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[245,4646,229325,4560,85,105692,46,43,2727,18413],"class_list":["post-650558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-canada","tag-colombia","tag-forgery","tag-fraud","tag-il","tag-interpol","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-spain","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}