Judge won’t free Israeli woman before sentencing for fraud

GREENBELT, Md. – A federal judge in Maryland has refused to free an Israeli woman on bail while she awaits sentencing for orchestrating a scheme to defraud tens of thousands of investors across the globe out of tens of millions of dollars.

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang ruled Tuesday that Lee Elbaz hasn’t shown there are release conditions that will “reasonably assure” her appearance at a December sentencing hearing.

In August, Elbaz was taken into custody after a jury convicted her of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Elbaz was CEO of an Israeli company that operated in the sale and marketing of financial instruments known as “binary options.”

A prosecutor said Elbaz trained employees to lie to investors and rigged the odds against them making money.