- 1Shalev faces charges of wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft
- 2Prosecutors believe he fraudulently obtained more than $4 million
- 3He was arrested in Spain after fleeing the US in 2019 with three pending warrants
The suspect in the small business finance industry's long-running mystery fraud lived lavishly before his arrest in Spain and extradition to the United States, according to prosecutors. Saul Shalev is charged with wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors say he stole merchants' identities, set up fake loan brokerages and tricked business owners and funders into paying money into his personal bank accounts.
The arrest
Shalev had been living in Dubai but was vacationing at the Hotel Nobu Barcelona when authorities caught him, in a country with a US extradition treaty. They also seized his laptop, which held evidence in the case. He is 36, and he was a fugitive even before these charges: he left the US in 2019 with three pending warrants in New Jersey and New York. The scheme against the industry was run from abroad.
The lifestyle
The US Attorney said Shalev paid $18,000 a month to rent an apartment in Dubai, was photographed beside a $250,000 McLaren 650S, chartered yachts, and hired chauffeured limousines in Paris.
How the scheme worked
His alleged fake ISOs include Silver Oak Capital Funding, LEM Enterprises and SpBiz. Authorities recovered a spreadsheet listing 27 funders, marking which ones he had signed up with or “used and abused.”
Shalev is said to have used basic public UCC filing data to work out which merchants held small business loans and roughly when they were funded. That let him contact those merchants posing as their lender of record and start each scam. In total, prosecutors believe he fraudulently obtained more than $4 million from merchants and funders.
The detention fight
Shalev asked to be moved from jail to home detention. Prosecutors responded that he is a classic flight risk, since his capture overseas followed an earlier flight from the law. They wrote that if he is released and flees again, the many small business owners and employees harmed by his conduct are unlikely to see justice.
Source reporting: deBanked.
