The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court upheld the claim of the Bank of Israel and sentenced the counterfeiter to pay compensation in the amount of 250 thousand shekels for copyright infringement.
The civil suit was filed by the central bank after the defendant was found guilty in a criminal trial of manufacturing and distributing counterfeit banknotes in denominations of 50, 100 and 200 shekels.
The images on the banknotes are protected by copyright owned by the Bank of Israel.
The policy of prosecuting counterfeiters in civil court in addition to criminal proceedings was adopted by the Bank of Israel in the middle of the last decade. In 2018, the central bank sued counterfeiters Roi Bar-Eitan and Yaakov Morciano for 550 million shekels for counterfeiting 200 shekels banknotes.