An Israeli official accused of trying to meet a 15-year-old girl for sex outside Las Vegas has been ordered to appear via video link next week after he missed his arraignment hearing, local media reported.
Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, a senior cybersecurity official with the Israeli government, was one of eight people arrested as part of a multi-week operation by Nevada and federal authorities targeting "child sex predators," according to an August 15 statement from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
He was due to be at a court in Henderson, just outside Las Vegas, on Wednesday for a felony arraignment hearing, according to court records.
Local media, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal and local news station KLAS-TV, said he skipped the hearing. The Review-Journal quoted his lawyers as saying they had agreed with the district attorney's office that Alexandrovich did not have to appear in person.
The judge was quoted by the newspaper as saying the district attorney's office had no authority to make that agreement and ordered his appearance next week. The outlets said Alexandrovich's lawyers arranged for him to appear remotely via Zoom.
The court docket showed that a new arraignment hearing had been set for September 3.
Alexandrovich's lawyers said in an email that their client "will appear by Zoom as permitted by the Court."
A pedophiles haven
Alexandrovich was arrested in Henderson after arranging to meet a decoy posing as a teenage girl, according to a police report cited by local media. He quickly posted bail and returned to Israel, drawing international scrutiny and raising questions over whether the US or Israeli governments had exerted any pressure to speed his release.
The Israeli government initially downplayed his arrest. The US State Department also denied having played a role in his release.
However, pedophiles fleeing the US to Israel to escape justice is nothing new. According to a CBS investigation in 2020, many Americans flee the US to Israel after they are exposed.
In comments to the local media, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, whose office has jurisdiction over Las Vegas and Henderson, called the bail conditions "standard" and said there had been no special treatment.
