Prominent Las Vegas Businessman "Marty Vegas" Convicted of Fraud & Cartel Money Laundering

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U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Martin Mizrahi brazenly used his company as a front to launder millions of dollars in drug and fraud proceeds and to deceive credit card companies into processing additional millions of dollars in sham charges. The jury’s unanimous verdict sends a resounding message that individuals who steal and introduce illicit funds into the U.S. financial system will be held accountable.”

Becoming involved in the early adoption of the internet during the 1990s, Mizrahi founded LV.net, a Las Vegas-based internet company. He claims to have registered 100,000s of domains. He owned notable websites including Vegas.com, Hawaii.com, LA.Com, and Illinois.Com that were turned into tourism sites before being sold off over the years, maintaining LV.net.

Cartel Money Laundering

“Marty Mizrahi,” was convicted of wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and other offenses for his participation in multiple schemes to defraud banks and credit card companies of almost $8 million and to launder more than $4 million in fraud and illegal narcotics proceeds.

Beginning in or about February 2021, Mizrahi began accepting bulk cash narcotics proceeds, which he laundered for individuals associated with a Mexican-based cartel by converting the money into Bitcoin and then sending it to anonymous cryptocurrency wallets provided to him by co-conspirators.

In addition, he laundered fraud proceeds sent to his company by wire transfer, which he also converted into cryptocurrency before sending it to anonymous cryptocurrency wallets.

Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Scheme

The FBI arrested Martin “Marty” Mizrahi in December 2022 for conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. According to documents, prosecutors allege Mizrahi and three other men defrauded banks, businesses, and individuals of more than $9 million through compromised email addresses and credit cards.

Prosecutors said fraud charges made through point-of-sale credit card machines came from companies Mizrahi and another defendant owned. Court documents do not name any of Mizrahi’s businesses, including LV.net.

A New York City-based non-profit organization had over $3 million stolen from it by hackers in a business email compromise scheme.  “To effectuate the [business email compromise] schemes, the conspirators sent email messages to victims that fraudulently appeared to come from a known source making a legitimate request,” prosecutors wrote in charging documents. 

“Through those emails, the conspirators requested that the victims send money to bank accounts under the control of [Zubaid, Goran, and Rebiga], which was then transferred and disbursed to bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets, including accounts under the control of Zubaid, Rebiga, and Mizrahi.”

The men then transferred the money to their accounts and allegedly lied to banks, prosecutors said. In addition to Mizrahi, David Goran, 56, of Riverside, California; Julia Rebiga, 55, of Long Beach, California; and Joel Zubaid, 55, of Riverside, California, were named as defendants.

Who is "Marty Vegas?"

Marty Mizrahi was a successful Las Vegas businessman who started Vegas.com and purchased hundreds of thousands of domains in the early 1990s when the internet was first gaining traction.

According to his own website, www.martymizrahi.com, he is an "Internet Pioneer," and "Real Estate Investor."

"Marty Mizrahi, before the internet existed was in the computer business (sales and repairs). Then In the early 90’s Marty Mizrahi gave up on repairs and founded Eastman Computers, a computer wholesale company. Marty in his early 20’s had guided Eastman into a company selling computer parts to every retail computer business in Vegas."

He touted his success in the Vegas real estate development and investment market.

"Marty Mizrahi has been in the real estate business since early 90’s Marty Mizrahi bought and sold many homes in Las Vegas During Mizrahi’s real estate investing he still ran his businesses Mizrahi owns many residential and commercial properties"

He currently runs the company LV.net. His site states that Marty wants "to grow his business and help people get internet throughout Las Vegas and rural areas."

His full bio reads that Martin "is an entrepreneur, innovator, visionary, and developer known to all as “Marty”. Marty is renowned for having launched numerous companies dating back to the early 1980s, From Flyer businesses in his early teens to the computer business evolving into an Internet Trailblazer in 1993 when the Internet first began. He has made prominent contributions to the City of Las Vegas, Downtown Area by providing free Wi-Fi Internet service to the city’s visitors.

He began working as early as elementary school gaining knowledge and business experience he would maintain throughout his career. Following the path of his father as an entrepreneur, he started the first wholesale computer company in Las Vegas, Nevada, Eastman Computers. Within a few years, Marty lead the company to gross over $7 million per year. A short time after he founded Metro Net Paging and Cellular, a business he eventually sold to a local paging company."

Mizrahi started Vegas.com in 1998, developing it into a prime tourist destination site before selling the website to the Las Vegas Greenspun Group. The Greenspun Group owns the Las Vegas Sun newspaper as well as other Vegas and tourist-related media titles. Currently, Remark Holdings (formerly Remark Media) owns the website.

The Greenspun Group company was initially started by Hank Greenspan in the late 1940s. Hank founded the Las Vegas Sun newspaper in 1949. He became closely involved with mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel and the work he was doing to reopen his Flamingo casino. Greenspun worked as the Flamingos's publicity agent.

Las Vegas Sun newspaper founder Hank Greenspun.

Following the murder of Siegel in Los Angeles in 1947, Greenspun renewed his interest in his Jewish heritage and became a prominent figure in supporting the struggle to establish the State of Israel, he supplied arms to Israel including machine guns.

In 1947, when the Haganah was already in armed conflict with Arab forces, Greenspun shipped machine guns and airplane parts to that organization (which later became the core of the Israel Defense Forces). This was a violation of the U.S. Neutrality Acts, a crime for which Greenspun was arrested and ultimately convicted on July 10, 1950.

He was fined $10,000 but received no prison time. On October 18, 1961, President John F. Kennedy granted Greenspun a pardon. Later, Greenspun would be tied to the infamous Watergate Scandal with the CIA "Plumbers" who broke into the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel had previously attempted to break into Greenspun's safe to allegedly retrieve possible blackmail material on a possible Democratic Presidential candidate.

@MartyVegas

Mizrahi played the successful Las Vegas businessman lifestyle on his social media accounts, with a majority of the photos of him partying with several beautiful women and showing off luxury cars wrapped with his company's branding. The car seen below is likely a company-owned car that is a tax write-off.

Marty's company LV.net was honored by the city of Las Vegas as the Mayor proclaimed a "LV.net Day" on September 6, 2006. "Marty Mizrahi, owner of LV.Net has earned a proclamation from Mayor Oscar Goodman in Las Vegas for LasVegas.Net and a proclamation from Mayor Richard Riordan in Los Angeles for LV.com."

Deceased mobster Spilotro and his lawyer Oscar Goodman.

The former Mayor Oscar Goodman was a well-known Vegas mob lawyer. Oscar defended notable LCN/Mafia members including Anthony "Ant" Spilotro, played by Joe Pesci in the movie Casino. Oscar himself also appeared in the movie as a defense lawyer for Robert De Niro's character. Among Goodman's other mob clients were Meyer Lansky, Nicky Scarfo, Phil Leonetti, Herbert "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein, former Stardust Casino boss Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, and Jamiel "Jimmy" Chagra, who was convicted of ordering the assassination of a federal Judge during his drug trafficking trial in Texas.

The current Las Vegas Mayor is Oscar Goodman's wife Carolyn Goodman. She succeeded him in 2011 following his 12 years in office.  Carolyn in 2013 praised Marty's work in providing free Wi-Fi internet service to the then dismal Downtown Las Vegas area.

Mizrahi's 2023 Statement

One month after his December 2022 arrest, and release on $500,000 bail; he gave a statement proclaiming his innocence to Vegas news outlet 8 News Now.

“In August 2021, the United States government seized funds from me based on Bitcoin that I had sold in May 2021,” Mizrahi said in a statement to the 8 News Now Investigators. “The funds transmitted to me were simply payment in consideration for Bitcoin. At the time, I fully believed the funds that were wired to me were from a legitimate source and I had no reason to believe otherwise. Indeed, I had provided the FBI any/all docs they had requested of me.”

“I hired Portale Randazzo, a New York-based litigation firm, to challenge the government’s seizure of my funds,” Mizrahi said. “Later, I learned that the origin of the funds was compromised and potentially the product of criminal activity.”

“I am confident that once all the facts in this case come out, I will be exonerated of these charges,” Mizrahi said. “I can unequivocally state that I did not commit any of the acts of fraud alleged in the indictment and I look forward to confirming my innocence as the case progresses.”

That was not the case as Mizrahi was found guilty on March 4, 2024.

Sources DOJ, 8NewsNow, DOJ, 8NewsNow, Daily Mail, FrankOnFraud, MartyMizrahi.com, Las Vegas Sun