Ex-Convict Featured in Investigation Gets 10-Year Sentence for Large-Scale Fraud

Following an N12 investigation into his schemes, the Ramla and Rehovot Magistrate Court sentenced Haim Yosef Avitan to 10 years in prison. Deputy President Dorit Saban-Noy handed down the ruling on June 14, 2026, after concluding that Avitan had defrauded dozens of businesses, farmers and charities of more than 3 million shekels.

The article says Avitan had been released from prison shortly before the war, but will now return to a cell. It also notes that about a year earlier, the network reported that he had cheated dozens of victims by using the name of people displaced by the war.

Avitan was known as the star of the investigative report titled “HaNoklim” and was described as having exploited multiple victims across Israel. One of them was quoted as saying, “He is a thief, a fraud, I cannot stand to see him.”

The sentence closes a case that had drawn attention because of the scale of the alleged deception and the use of wartime hardship as part of the fraud. The report says more details were to follow.