WHITE COLLAR CRIME ISRAEL

When a client hands a lawyer money in trust, a power of attorney or a document to sign, the client also hands over trust. Most lawyers honour it. When it is abused, the damage builds quietly and is sometimes discovered only after the money is gone. That is why lawyers are the most important test case of white-collar crime: the profession gives access to money, documents, registries and court proceedings that an outsider never gets.

What white-collar crime means

The term was coined by the American sociologist Edwin Sutherland in a 1939 address, a 1940 article and a 1949 book. He set out to show that crime is not only street crime, but also offences committed within an occupation by people with status, access and influence. Later research shifted the focus from the offender's identity to the act itself: the abuse of trust, information, authorization or access.

Israeli law has no offence by that name. Courts work with defined sections, among them obtaining something by fraud (section 415 of the Penal Law), theft by an authorized person (393), forgery and use of a forged document (418 and 420), fraud and breach of trust in a corporation (425), money laundering and tax offences.

How much of it is there in Israel

The accurate answer: it cannot be measured in one number. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, from January to October 2024 the police opened 14,318 files in the fraud group (up about 3.1% on 2023) and 5,249 files in the economic-offences group (up about 6.2%). But one file can be counted in both groups, and neither group is a definition of white-collar crime.

A study by the judiciary and the Knesset, which defined white-collar offences for its purposes as fraud, economic and administrative offences, found that the share of convicts who served their sentence as community service rather than in prison rose from 82.5% to 90.6% between 2018 and 2022.

What the courts say about lawyers who betrayed trust

In Criminal Appeal 755/10 the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of a lawyer who admitted theft by an authorized person of money held in trust, writing that one does not right a wrong with another wrong, "and a lawyer who owes a duty of trust to his clients is especially bound to avoid it". In Criminal Appeal 248/18 the court held that sentencing must reflect "the great danger posed by sophisticated economic offences".

Five criminal appeals reviewed in the study show sentences of three to nine years in prison: in 7090/06 six years stood, in 72/14 the sentence was cut from seven years to six, in 5809/19 from 42 months to 36, in 5139/19 three years stood, and in 798/22 nine years in prison stood.

Suspended lawyers: what the Bar knows, and what the public does not see

The State Comptroller's 2020 report is the most important system-wide source. In 2016 to 2018 the ethics committees received 9,941 complaints and 826 disciplinary indictments were filed, when 68,500 lawyers were registered with the Bar. The Comptroller found long delays in handling complaints in the Tel Aviv district, and a serious gap in information flow: of 214 indictments the police prosecution filed against lawyers in 2017 to 2018, the districts were informed of only 70.

The report also found that 549 lawyers convicted of a disciplinary offence held a licence to train legal interns, a licence granted for life and not reviewed after the conviction.

How to check a lawyer in Israel before handing over money

There is no single, up-to-date public list of suspended lawyers in Israel, so the check takes several steps:

• The Israel Bar Association lawyers' directory: shows whether the lawyer is registered as an active member. A suspended or disbarred lawyer should not appear there as active.
• Case-law databases: search the lawyer's name in criminal judgments and in decisions of the Bar's disciplinary courts.
• Ask the Bar directly: information on a suspension or removal from the Bar can be requested from the district ethics committee.
• Money in trust: insist on a separate trust account, a written agreement and transfer confirmations. A lawyer who asks you to pay into a company's or a third party's account, rather than a trust account, is a reason to stop.

Not every complaint is an offence

A complaint is a request for review. A disciplinary indictment is a disciplinary proceeding. A criminal indictment is the prosecution's claim, and the defendant is presumed innocent. A criminal conviction alone does not determine the lawyer's status at the Bar, and a suspension that has ended is not a current status. A list that mixes suspects, defendants, convicts and suspended lawyers can mislead, even if every name on it once appeared in a real document. That is why this article presents case numbers and outcomes, not names.

The gap is the finding

The information exists, but it is fragmented: a criminal judgment does not refer to the disciplinary case, a suspension notice does not state the offence, and complaint data are not linked to outcomes. A transparent system lets a member of the public check, before handing over money, the standing of the lawyer in front of them. In Israel in 2026, that still takes a professional check.

Sources: State Comptroller Report 70B (2020), the Israel Bar Association (Hebrew); Central Bureau of Statistics, police files by offence group, January to October 2024 (Hebrew); Knesset and judiciary study on community service (Hebrew); State Attorney Guideline 10.4 (Hebrew); Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority, abuse of business services provided by lawyers (Hebrew); Criminal Appeals 755/10, 7090/06, 72/14, 5809/19, 5139/19, 798/22, 248/18; Criminal Case 4944-02-20; E. H. Sutherland, White Collar Crime (1949); Yoni Livni, "White-collar crime in Israel: is enough being done?" (2017). Quotations from Hebrew judgments are our translation.

The information in this section is general and is not legal advice. An indictment is not a conviction. The study reflects the sources reviewed up to October 7, 2026.