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Cops in Las Vegas have claimed the arrest and detention of the executive director of the Israel Cyber Directorate, Tom Alexandrovich. The Israeli PM has issued a statement.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) revealed late last week that it had arrested one of Israel’s top cyber security officials after he was rounded up with seven other individuals during an operation targeting “child sex predators”.
Tom Artiom Alexandrovich (pictured) was arrested and detained during the two-week operation, which also involved the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and several other police departments.
“A multi-agency operation targeting child sex predators led to the arrest of eight individuals over the last two weeks,” the LVMPD said in a 15 August statement.
Alexandrovich and the other men arrested were charged with counts of luring a child with a computer for sex act.
Following the arrest, Alexandrovich’s LinkedIn profile was deleted, though multiple news outlets have published screenshots of the deleted profile. Alexandrovich’s last post was regarding the Black Hat 2025 cyber security event, recently held in Las Vegas and which Alexandrovich appeared to have attended.
Despite the LVMPD’s claim that Alexandrovich was being detained at the Henderson Detention Center in Nevada, Israeli media outlet Ynet reported on 14 August that Alexandrovich was only briefly detained for questioning.
“After his questioning, he returned to his hotel and flew back to Israel two days later,” Ynet said.
“Israeli officials downplayed the incident, saying it carried ‘no political implications’ and was resolved quickly. The reasons for the questioning remain unclear but may relate to the employee’s conduct.”
However, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement denying any arrest.
“A state employee who travelled to the US for professional matters was questioned by American authorities during his stay,” the statement said.
“The employee, who does not hold a diplomatic visa, was not arrested and returned to Israel as scheduled.”
According to the statement, the employee in question “has taken leave to address the matter until it is clarified”.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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