A slick con artist who built his scheme on the trust of the Orthodox Jewish community got slapped with more than six years behind bars for his deceptive dealings. Yossi Engel, 36, formerly of L.A.'s Fairfax District, has been sentenced to 80 months in federal prison after swindling investors out of a whopping $25 million funneled into his bogus security camera business and non-existent real estate projects in Israel.
Back in Los Angeles, Engel was nabbed at Los Angeles International Airport in February 2023, clutching a one-way ticket out of the U.S. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud in May and has been cooling his heels in federal custody since his capture. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, United States District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong put the hammer down on Engel's criminal activities, also hitting him with an $11.7 million restitution bill.
Engel's company, iWitness Tech Inc., created fake invoices and tales of booming business to lure investments ranging from $15,000 to a heftier $1.3 million. Promises of quick, high-yield returns turned out to be as empty as Engel's business ethics. The FBI, which investigated the matter, found that rather than installing security cameras, iWitness staff would often sit twiddling their thumbs while Engel snoozed on a sofa.
Adding to his web of lies, Engel concocted a fantastical real estate empire in Israel, duping investors with fraudulent land documents and a crafted narrative of redevelopment riches. In a statement obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office, prosecutors said, “The consequences of [Engel's] dishonesty are not only financial but his victims endured an emotional cost.”
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission didn't turn a blind eye, slapping Engel with a lawsuit in January 2023 that accused him of leveraging his community connections to perpetrate an "affinity fraud." Engel's expensive tastes, including jaunts on private jets and gambling sprees, were funded by the misappropriated millions.
