Alexandrovich is set to appear before a judge at Clark County Courthouse on 27 August. [National Cyber Directorate]
A senior Israeli official recently arrested in the US for child sex crimes has been released on bail and allowed to return to Israel.
Tom Alexandrovich, who serves in a leading role in Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, was among eight people arrested by Nevada police following a two-week undercover operation targeting child sex predators, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Friday.
Alexandrovich, 38, was charged with attempting to lure a child with a computer for a sex act and detained in a facility near Las Vegas on 6 August, police records show. He was then released on $10,000 bail after appearing before a judge on 7 August.
It remains unclear who posted his bail or why he was allowed to leave the country.
Alexandrovich serves as an executive director in Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, an agency in the Israeli prime minister’s office, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has been involved in building Israel’s ‘Cyber Dome’ initiative to protect the country against online attacks.
A post on his profile shows he was in Las Vegas attending a cybersecurity conference.
His LinkedIn page was deleted hours following the reports of the arrest.
Israeli news outlet Yedioth Ahronoth had reported that an agency official was “briefly detained for questioning” before being released and flying back to Israel.
The report did not identify Alexandrovich or disclose why he had been detained.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office initially denied that the official had been arrested and confirmed they had returned to Israel.
“A state employee who travelled to the US for professional matters was questioned by American authorities during his stay,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement to Israeli media. “The employee, who does not hold a diplomatic visa, was not arrested and returned to Israel as scheduled.”
The Cyber Directorate later told Israeli media that the earlier statement “was accurate based on the information provided to us” and denied involvement in posting Alexandrovich’s bail.
Alexandrovich has been placed on leave from the agency by “mutual decision”, it said.
Under Nevada law, cyber-luring a child for a sex act can carry jail terms of between one and 10 years.
Alexandrovich is set to appear at the Clark County Court on 27 August.
