LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — An Israeli citizen in the Las Vegas Valley was arrested for luring a minor online, claiming he was “pushed” to bring a condom to a meeting location, documents say.
According to an arrest report, Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, 38, used online platforms to meet a juvenile in Las Vegas. Eight suspects were arrested by agents and detectives from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, FBI, North Las Vegas and Henderson Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, the Nevada attorney general’s office, and the Nevada Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The report says detectives posed as a 15-year-old juvenile and went on online platforms such as “Pure” and “WhatsApp” to find people involved in the sexual exploitation of children. Police say people can use these platforms to speak and possibly set up a meeting for sexual contact with a child. It could also be used to produce child pornography, the report says.
On August 6, police under the decoy account came in contact with someone, later identified as Alexandrovich, and the conversation turned sexual. Police say Alexandrovich talked about bringing a condom and taking the decoy to a Las Vegas Strip show. The suspect said they would arrive in an Uber.
Police were able to document the online conversation, according to the report.
Task force officers later contacted Alexandrovich at the meeting location, and he was taken into custody at the Henderson Police Department, the report said.
In an interview with the suspect documented in the arrest report, he told police he was visiting Las Vegas for the Black Hat conference, and he had worked for the Israeli government for the past 14 years. He said he’s been in the United States for the past three months since a cryptocurrency event in New York City.
Alexandrovich claimed he thought the girl he was speaking to was 18, according to the report, as “that was the age listed on the Pure application.” He claimed the girl on the phone was “pushing” him to bring a condom to the meeting location, the report said.
After he was placed under arrest, police said he was shocked and started asking for a way to contact someone about his international flight back to Israel. He did not know the numbers for the Israeli government, according to the report.
Alexandrovich told police his family lives in Israel, the report said.
According to a social media post from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the U.S. government did not intervene in his arrest.
“Any claims that the U.S. government intervened are false,” the state department said in the post.
A November 2024 article on the official website of the Israeli government referenced a person with the same name as the head of the Technological Defense Division at the Israel National Cyber Directorate.
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