Hasidic Fugitive Fakes Heart Attack on Extradition Flight, Escapes in Dublin
Eliezer Vigdorovich, sought in Israel on fraud charges, slips away from federal escorts after forcing an emergency landing in Ireland.
A man wanted by Israeli authorities on serious fraud charges managed to escape custody Tuesday night after allegedly faking a heart attack aboard a deportation flight from New York to Israel, forcing an emergency landing in Dublin, where he vanished before police could apprehend him.
Eliezer Vigdorovich, referred to in Israeli media as "the operations man of the Ger Hasidic community," was being escorted by U.S. federal officers on a flight to Israel after a New York court ordered his extradition. Israeli police were waiting at Ben Gurion Airport with an arrest warrant. They left empty-handed.
The escape is the latest twist in a case that has already featured a dramatic border crossing, a hidden fugitive, and allegations of a scheme to defraud two elderly women out of a property worth tens of millions of shekels.
A fugitive hidden among luggage
The saga began several weeks ago when Vigdorovich was apprehended at the U.S.-Canada border in northern New York state. Border agents discovered him crammed into the cargo area of a Ford Expedition SUV with Canadian license plates, concealed beneath a pile of suitcases.
The vehicle was being driven by an Israeli lawyer named Israel Endean, who told agents he was simply making a private visit to the United States. Federal investigators were skeptical. The indictment filed against the pair states that it is implausible that a grown man could be lying in the back of a vehicle among luggage without the driver's knowledge. "The facts point to an attempted escape, even if Endean claims otherwise," the report noted.
Records showed that Vigdorovich and Endean had arrived together on a flight from Poland to Toronto, then traveled jointly to the SUV, which had been rented on Endean's behalf by a third associate who had separately crossed the border by taxi. Vigdorovich, who had prior convictions for assault and extortion, had been barred from entering the U.S.
Endean remains in custody in the United States. A federal court in Buffalo extended his detention through the end of March, citing a substantial flight risk.
The alleged fraud
Israeli police say Vigdorovich and Endean are suspected of orchestrating an elaborate real estate fraud targeting two elderly, unmarried sisters in Tel Aviv. The suspects allegedly forged documents to seize control of a building on Idelson Street belonging to the two women, one of whom has since died, valued at approximately 40 million shekels.
The pair then allegedly sold the property twice over, to two separate buyers, collecting a deposit of 2 million shekels from each, pocketing a total of 8 million shekels in the process.
The case was investigated covertly by the fraud unit of the Tel Aviv District Police over several months before officers, along with members of the Yamam special forces unit, raided the suspects' homes. Computers and numerous documents were seized during the searches. Both suspects are residents of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem and are in their 40s.
The flight and the escape
After the New York court ruled that Vigdorovich should be deported to Israel, federal officers escorted him onto a flight bound for the country. During the flight, Vigdorovich allegedly simulated a cardiac event severe enough to prompt the aircraft to make an emergency landing at Dublin Airport.
Upon landing, Vigdorovich deplaned and disappeared. Israeli police, who had been expecting him at Ben Gurion, confirmed he never arrived.
Israeli authorities are now working with Irish police to track Vigdorovich down and secure a new extradition to Israel. His whereabouts, for now, remain unknown.