Israeli Official Arrested in Child Sex Sting Will Fight Charge: Attorney
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A top Israeli government official arrested in an undercover child sex sting in Nevada intends to fight the charge despite having already left the U.S., his Las Vegas-based attorney told Newsweek Wednesday.
Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, a 38-year-old senior official for Israel's National Cyber Directorate, was arrested on August 6 as part of a multiagency operation targeting alleged child sex predators. Police in Las Vegas announced details of the undercover sting on Friday.
Alexandrovich and seven other suspects face a felony charge of luring a child with a computer for sex, Las Vegas police said. The Israeli official will fight the allegation, his attorney confirmed.
"Our client is presumed to be innocent and intends to vigorously defend himself against the charge," attorney David Z. Chesnoff wrote in an email to Newsweek. "Mr. Alexandrovich intends to be in court whenever required by the court."
Tom Artiom Alexandrovich in an undated official photograph.
Tom Artiom Alexandrovich in an undated official photograph.
National Cyber Directorate via Israeli Media
Chesnoff also denied that his client, who has since returned to Israel, received preferential treatment after posting $10,000 bail with no apparent conditions a day after his arrest and prior to appearing before a judge, according to court records cited the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"He categorically received no special treatment as the bail set was standard and a bond was posted consistent with normal judicial procedures," Chesnoff told Newsweek. "Mr. Alexandrovich will meet all his court obligations consistent with the normal practices in the courts of Clark County, Nevada."
U.S. State Department officials acknowledged Monday that the Israeli citizen did not claim diplomatic immunity and had been released by a state judge pending a court date before he left the country.
"Any claims that the U.S. government intervened are false," State Department officials wrote on X.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson did not return immediately return inquiries seeking comment Wednesday, but he defended Alexandrovich's bail as "standard" during an interview Tuesday with the Review-Journal.
"The standard bail for this charge was $10,000, so anybody, upon being booked on that charge, can post that bail and get released with no conditions, and that's what happened in this case," Wolfson told the newspaper.
The other seven other suspects, who did not post bail immediately, appeared before a judge for a probable-cause review, Wolfson added.
A law enforcement decoy who pretended to be a 15-year-old girl started talking to an individual with Alexandrovich's phone on the "Pure" dating application, as well as WhatsApp, on August 6, according to an arrest report obtained by the Review-Journal.
The conversation then turned "sexual in nature," with the suspect allegedly agreeing to meet the undercover investigator and take her on a date to a Cirque du Soleil show, the arrest report shows.
Alexandrovich later arrived in a rideshare at an undisclosed location where the meeting was supposed to occur, police said.
Alexandrovich, who said he had worked for the Israeli government for roughly 14 years, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
After waving his Miranda rights, Alexandrovich told federal agents he thought he was speaking to an 18-year-old woman as he attended a six-day Black Hat USA 2025 cybersecurity conference at the Mandalay Bay that ended on August 5, Las Vegas police said.
"Alexandrovich stated he felt the girl 'pushed' him to talk about bringing a condom yet could not remember how many times the girl 'pushed' him," according to the arrest report.
Las Vegas police said Friday that the eight arrests had occurred within the past two weeks.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson holds up an indictment for Duane "Keefe D" Davis during a news conference at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department headquarters to brief media members on Davis' arrest and...
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson holds up an indictment for Duane "Keefe D" Davis during a news conference at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department headquarters to brief media members on Davis' arrest and indictment for the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur on September 29, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. More"We would like to remind parents to discuss with their children the dangers of engaging with strangers online," police said in a statement. "Parents are encouraged to routinely monitor their children's activity on social media and other online applications to prevent them from becoming victims of a child sex predator. This operation was conducted as part of the ongoing efforts to reduce violent crime and protect children in our community."
The top federal prosecutor in Nevada, Sigal Chattah, confirmed in a statement Monday that Wolfson's office will handle the eight cases.
"Last week, Tom Artiom Alexandrovich was arrested in a Nevada Internet Crimes Against Children joint operation; and he was booked into the Henderson Detention Center," Chattah said. "This important multi-agency operation targeted child sex predators who preyed upon the most vulnerable members of our communities."
Newsweek has also reached out to the Israeli Consulate General in New York for further comment.
The arrest of an official in Benjamin Netanyahu's government on charges of soliciting a minor propelled Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand far-right lawmaker from Georgia who has broken with the Trump administration on the war in Gaza and the Jeffrey Epstein case, to speculate on social media that he was being shielded by the Trump administration.
"Why did our government release a child sex predator from Israel who works directly under the Prime Minister of Israel?" Greene wrote on X.
A status hearing in Alexandrovich's case is scheduled for August 27, court records show. Alexandrovich remains in Israel, according to reports in Israeli media.
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