‘Israeli Godfather’ sentenced to 20 years in prison
Eitan Hiya surrounded by 15 cops during reading of verdict; judge protected by security detail; 6 henchmen get jail time too
The Tel Aviv District Court on Thursday sentenced Eitan Hiya, nicknamed “the Israeli Godfather,” to 20 years in prison for conspiring to commit a crime, blackmail and money laundering.
The sentencing by Judge Zvi Gurfinkel was delivered with a heavily armed security detail on hand.
Hiya was reportedly the head of the Israeli mafia in New York, having left Israel in 1981. He returned to the country in 2004, after serving 15 years in United States for murder, and settled in a luxury Tel Aviv high-rise apartment.
In the current case, Hiya was convicted in December 2015 of extorting money, including in some cases by throwing hand grenades at the homes of his targets or of their relatives. He was also convicted of not reporting some NIS 15 million ($4 million) in cash that he brought from the US when he returned in 2004.
In his decision, Gurfinkel described a scene from Mario Puzo’s book “The Godfather.” He recounted a part in which the father of a girl who was raped and whose attackers were acquitted goes to Don Corleone and asks him to send people to break the rapists’ arms and legs.
“This scene describes harm to the rule of law. Woe to us if we need to turn to vigilante justice,” he wrote. “People who are being extorted are afraid to complain [to police] because of the knowledge that no significant penalty will be given” to their tormentors.
“It is our job to send a fierce message that extortionists will be removed from society for a long period of time. It is the court’s job to make sure the offense of extortion isn’t worthwhile, and that requires lengthy and painful punishments,” Gurfinkel wrote.
The judge was accompanied by a security detail for the past few days lest the defendant’s associates try to harm him
Hiya, addressing journalists shortly before the sentencing, said: “Every day they put people in jail for no reason. I also have a security detail.”
During the sentencing 15 police officers and prison wardens surrounded Hiya.
The Israeli crime boss’s reputation was “enough to instill fear in others,” wrote Gurfinkel. “Fear of Hiya is a thread that runs through the testimonies of those extorted by him. In some cases victims of his crimes refused to cooperate with the police while expressing genuine fear for their lives. More often than not, they said that after learning of Hiya’s past exploits, they felt fear.”
In some cases, Hiya gave loans to owners of businesses such as restaurants as well as to contractors, and continued to extort payments even after the debts were paid back in full. In other cases, Hiya would send his associates to enter small businesses as a partner, and then threaten his partners to obtain a larger cut of the profits.
Aside from the prison sentence, property belonging to Hiya will be seized and redistributed among the complainants, to the tune of NIS 2.5 million ($650,000).
Prison terms of less than a year were handed down to six associates of Hiya, who acted as his henchmen. They were named as Avi Loya, Moti Gigi, Dani Wolpert, Yanir Sudai, Rafi Hazan and Bassem Abu Harb.