The biggest bank robber in Israel’s history used no gun, hid behind no mask, took zero hostages and didn’t arrange for a getaway car.
In a scheme originally designed to help pay off the gambling debts of her brother, Ofer Maximov, Eti Alon stole more than 254 million shekels when she was deputy head of investments at Trade Bank. In 2002, Alon confessed to her crimes. She served 14.5 years in prison, while Maximov served 17. Their actions toppled the bank, the money reportedly went through illegal casinos and was used to buy ammunition and as a result, Israel instituted stricter banking protocols in an effort to prevent similar theft from taking place in the future.
The Israeli true crime series “Embezzlement” can be streamed by Topic in America and Canada. Produced by Yes Studios and Movie Plus, the seven-episode series is worth a watch, largely due to the powerhouse acting of Dana Ivgy. As Eti, the famously emotive Ivgy cries a few times and vomits once, but she gives an understated performance as a married woman with two children who is pressured into protecting her brother and gets in way too deep. It’s no surprise that Ivgy won the award for Best Actress in a Drama at the Israeli Academy of Film and Television Awards in 2021, the Israeli equivalent of an Emmy Award. It’s a performance of a woman in transition from a good person to someone attempting to justify her crimes, to someone who knows she has crossed the line. She is in a downward spiral that is difficult to escape.
The story’s set in motion when Ofer calls Edi, threating to commit suicide by jumping from a building since he can’t pay back the money he owes. As Ofer, Yehuda Levi is convincing as an arrogant and perhaps sexist man addicted to gambling and losing touch with reality. He tells his sister he will keep betting no matter how much he loses so he can ultimately repay her. Here, Levi often looks like Jon Hamm’s shorter Israeli cousin , if he got no sleep for a week, was refused a gym membership and was forced to get a bowl haircut.
Dover Koshashvilli is on point as the father, Avigdor, a man who admits on the stand that his son was a priority over his daughter. He has gambling problems of his own and has to be bailed out after by his daughter for 10,000 shekels after he is arrested for street fighting. In real life, he served several years in jail, was released due to illness, and died shortly thereafter.
Eti’s husband, Shlomi, doesn’t get to see enough of her, though there is a strong romantic scene in one of the last episodes. Shlomi (Hanan Savyon) knows he’s not being treated well but doesn’t know the extent of his wife’s theft. The bank boss Reuven (Shalom Assayag) is so trusting of Eti that he signs off on transactions without reading them or knowing what they’re about. Fans of “Fauda” will recognize Yaakov Zada-Daniel and Itzik Cohen who play Eli and Gabi in that series. Here, Zada-Daniel is a member of organized crime named Assi, who Eti comes to for help, while Cohen plays Tzuri Ben David, a man who grills Eti to find out exactly what she did.
Eti becomes more concerned when she hears that on a night when one of Ofer’s friends was driving him, a gunman fired a bullet that hit the friend.
In another disturbing scene, an unhinged Ofer tells his daughter Yasmin, that he’s bet 250,000 shekels on her imminent figure skating performance and urges her to do the triple axel in the competition. While it is doubtful that any organization would take action on a random child’s performance, bets between individuals can always be made. The show is inspired by real events but there are some fictional scene
It’s a slow burn to where the two focal subjects let loose after keeping most of their emotions locked up. When Etti says she confessed, due to her crimes due to fear, it seems she was afraid of being murdered by one of the unsavory characters who benefitted from her illegal activity.
“Embezzlement” is an engaging series that makes one think how far they’d go to try to help a family member. The mother of two also stole more than a decade of her children growing up with a mother around them as well as left her husband without his wife for the same time
The show doesn’t tell us that any of the money/weapons went to foreign enemies of Israel, but the danger exists as tracking the money in such cases is often an impossible task. We see the character of Alon uses her reputation as being skilled with customers and accounts to fool people on the show. At times, when under investigation for irregularities, there are tense moments on the show, where she demands to use computers of other employees, saying she has to fix a problem. There’s even a scene of a New Year’s Eve party in 2000 and there is dialogue where the pair hope perhaps evidence on computers will be deleted in the Y2K problem, where some at the time wrongly believed many electronic recording systems would be wiped out.
It’s hard to sympathize with any character, including Maximov’s mother, who in a scene talking on a jail visit, says her son never hurt anyone.
We see Ofer gamble at blackjack, a Roulette table and ultimately on his life. Today there are alerts and it is thought to be much harder to take huge sums from people’s bank accounts without their knowledge. A rApparently, Israel’s meticulous checks and rigorous training for the military did not extent of this specific bank at the time the events took place in the late 1990os and the first few years after 2000. With Israel viewed as having top notch security systems, even those with no general interest in Israeli shows may take a look with curiosity as to how something as absurd as this could have taken place.
Viewers will likely scream at the screen and urge Eti to tell her brother and father to get lost. I did. I did not expect it to change the series, but it was a gut reaction. Had the show featured an American actress, there would likely be more screaming in fear, but here, since for the most part, the anxiety is suppressed and internalized, it is somehow more harrowing. Those who are bothered by violent depictions will be able to enjoy the show as there is only one quick scene of physical harm and it’s not gruesome.
Created by Yotam Guendelman and Shira Porat with Guendelman directing, they create tension-filled elements.
If you watch “Embezzlement” your heart will sink, your jaw will drop to the floor, and you will be tempted to shout obscenities. Woe to the telemarketer who calls someone watching the show.
The show deals with several important themes from familial corruption to toxic masculinity. One can’t help but wonder if Eti was the gambler who lost huge sums and Ofer was the responsible banker, would he have put his neck on the line for her? If I had it, I’d bet 254 million shekels, he would not have.
