Ukraine-Israel dual citizen gets 4 years in $3 million investment fraud scheme, DOJ says

A dual citizen of Ukraine and Israel was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in an international investment fraud conspiracy that defrauded American victims of millions of dollars, the Justice Department announced.

Yaroslav Shilkloper, 50, was also ordered to pay a $250,000 fine and $1.43 million in restitution to his victims, according to the Justice Department. Shilkloper is the first of three defendants charged in the case to be sentenced, prosecutors said.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Shilkloper and his co-conspirators defrauded U.S. victims of more than $3 million by promising high returns on investments made through companies called “K6 Investing,” “Neotron Holding LTD.” and “Goldex Technology.” As part of the scheme, Shilkloper gave victims access to a digital platform that allowed them to view what they believed were real-time investment performance data.

In reality, prosecutors said, the victims’ money was never invested. Instead, according to court documents, the funds were diverted and laundered through a series of bank accounts in Ukraine, Georgia, Hungary, Israel, the Czech Republic and elsewhere, all controlled by Shilkloper and his co-conspirators. When victims tried to withdraw their money, they were prevented from doing so, threatened with legal action or manipulated into sending additional funds to the fraud ring, according to the Justice Department.

Shilkloper was arrested in Poland in 2023 and later extradited to the United States, prosecutors said. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with Polish authorities to secure his arrest and extradition, according to the announcement.

The U.S. forfeiture order issued in the case adds to $2.8 million previously returned to victims through forfeiture proceedings against Shilkloper and his co-conspirators in the Republic of Georgia, the Justice Department said.

The case was announced by Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger for the Southern District of Mississippi and Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Wright of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations New Orleans Field Office.

HSI’s New Orleans Field Office investigated the case. Trial Attorneys Ben Tonkin and Justin G. Bish of the Criminal Division’s Violent Crime and Racketeering Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter McCreight for the Southern District of Mississippi prosecuted the case.