American Charged in Israel With Spying for Iran in Exchange for Crypto

An American citizen studying at an ultra-Orthodox seminary in Jerusalem has been charged with espionage. Authorities say this is the first prosecution of a U.S. citizen amid a growing crackdown on Israelis recruited to spy for Iran.

Eli Lavon, 21, was formally charged Friday with two counts of contact with a foreign agent and 14 counts of communicating information that could benefit an enemy, according to an indictment filed by the State Attorney’s Office, as reported by CNN.

Prosecutors allege the case began in November 2025, when Lavon, while visiting relatives in the United States, responded to a job posting on the messaging app Telegram. A month later, when he returned to Israel, someone claiming to represent Iranian intelligence contacted him and began directing him to perform surveillance tasks, the indictment said.

These tasks reportedly included filming an abandoned building in a religious district in Jerusalem and recording footage in a supermarket. In one case, prosecutors say, Lavon was told to hide a cigarette pack with a note reading “The job is done” in a trash bin in a Jerusalem shopping center.

According to the indictment, he was paid in cryptocurrency for the material he provided. He communicated through two Telegram accounts and three phones.

After breaking off that contact, prosecutors say Lavon began communicating with a second Iran-linked handler, hiding a currency flash drive in a restaurant and sending a photo of his passport. That supervisor asked him for names of fellow seminary students, which Lavon declined to provide, the complaint said. Prosecutors say his combined payments from both handlers totaled about $1,379.

“This indictment illustrates how foreign intelligence services seek to exploit the digital sphere to identify, recruit and operate individuals from Israel,” said Ronit Shentzer Yaakobi of the Jerusalem Public Prosecution Service, “and how important it is to remain vigilant and immediately break contact when approached in this way.”

Lavon’s lawyer, Raz Bar Tzvi, said this CNN that being contacted online by a foreign actor does not make someone a spy, and argued that the facts described in the indictment do not support the allegations. He did not say how his client would plead.

Israel has indicted about 60 people on spying charges related to Iran since 2023; Officials say several locations allegedly guarded by such recruits were later hit by Iranian missile strikes.