Alleged Member of Israeli Crime Group Pleads Guilty

A man allegedly associated with Israeli organized crime pleaded guilty to extorting a Beverly Hills Lamborghini dealer, cutting short a trial that had touched on a Tel Aviv bank embezzlement and the gray market in luxury cars.

Hai Waknine was listening to testimony Tuesday from his codefendant, Gabriel Harroch, in federal court in Los Angeles when his attorneys sent Assistant U.S. Atty. Thomas P. Sleisenger a note proposing a plea.

Both sides agreed to recommend a nine-year prison term for Waknine at his sentencing Sept. 11.

Harroch already had pleaded guilty in the case.

“I was pleased at the result, somewhat surprised, but happy we could obtain our objective,” Sleisenger said.

Prosecutors alleged Waknine and Harroch, both Israeli nationals, were part of a crime organization called the Jerusalem Group.

Waknine loaned Viken Keuylian, owner of the Lamborghini dealership, $950,000 to buy luxury cars in Europe that could be imported into the United States at a profit, the government said.

Waknine later demanded repayment and hired thugs to threaten Keuylian in his showroom, the government alleged.

Waknine provided the money in part to launder funds embezzled from the Tel Aviv Trade Bank in Israel in 2001, prosecutors said.