Juror dismissed from fraud trial after days of deliberations

GREENBELT, Md. – A federal judge in Maryland has dismissed one of 12 jurors who have been deliberating for days in the case against an Israeli woman charged with orchestrating a scheme to defraud tens of thousands of investors out of millions of dollars.

The dismissed juror told U.S. District Judge George Hazel on Tuesday that he overhead somebody making disparaging remarks about the defendant, 38-year-old Lee Elbaz, while visiting an unspecified “local establishment” on Sunday.

Hazel denied a request by Elbaz’s attorney to declare a mistrial. An alternate replaced the juror. The judge instructed jurors to start their deliberations “from scratch.”

Elbaz was CEO of Yukom Communications, an Israel-based company. Prosecutors said she trained employees to dupe investors through the sale and marketing of financial instruments known as “binary options.”