Russian law enforcement authorities detained an Israeli-Canadian racecar driver and entrepreneur wanted by the U.S. for allegedly defrauding investors of millions of dollars through an illegal online stock trading scheme, media reported Tuesday.
Joshua Cartu, 45, was detained at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo International Airport by the Interior Ministry’s Interpol bureau on Monday, according to the local news website 47news.ru.
The outlet, citing an anonymous police source, said Cartu will be held for up to two days while the U.S. confirms he is under investigation. If confirmation is received, Russian authorities will seek a court order to formally place him under arrest.
“If our foreign colleagues don’t send confirmation of their investigation and documents for [Cartu’s] arrest within 48 hours, we’ll have to let him go,” the source was quoted as saying.
Russia and the U.S. do not have an extradition treaty.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2020 charged Cartu and two of his brothers, as well as two of their business partners and four companies, with defrauding customers of $165 million through online investment schemes known as binary options between 2013 and 2018.
A Texas court in March 2024 found Jonathan Cartu, Leeav Peretz, Nati Peretz and Blue Moon Investments Inc. liable for fraud in connection with offering illegal, off-exchange binary options. They were ordered to pay $204 million in civil monetary penalty and restitution.
Canada’s financial regulator, the Ontario Securities Commission, in 2020 accused the Cartu brothers of pocketing $233 million in global binary options-related schemes that promised returns “between 60-85%.”
Their victims were said to have included retirees, disabled veterans, struggling parents and early-career millennials, according to the monthly magazine Toronto Life.
The magazine said Joshua Cartu, who flaunted his lavish lifestyle on social media, owned a dozen Ferraris and regularly paid to participate in races and rallies for affluent supercar owners.
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