Intel Israel has filed a lawsuit with the Haifa District Court over a complex internal fraud scheme in which a former employee allegedly conspired with a supplier to exploit procurement loopholes and embezzle over 3 million shekels (approximately $842,000).

The defendants named in the suit are Natalia Avtsin, a former employee in Intel's hardware production department, and Yafim Tsibolevsky, a former supplier who registered as an official vendor under the name “Energy Electronics 2000” in September 2023. The fraudulent activity is believed to have started in October 2023 and continued until Avtsin was laid off in November 2024.

According to Intel, Avtsin would request hardware component price quotes from Tsibolevsky and forward them to her manager for purchase approval. Once approved, she allegedly reclassified the transactions from “components” to “services,” bypassing internal checks that apply only to physical goods. Unlike component purchases, service payments did not require delivery confirmation or warehouse validation, enabling Tsibolevsky to submit invoices and receive payment without further scrutiny.

Intel's investigation found that many of the invoices submitted were deliberately priced just under Avtsin's $20,000 transaction approval limit, raising further suspicion. The company stated that “miraculously, most of the invoices submitted at Avtsin's request were just within her authorized purchasing threshold.”

In addition to direct payments to Energy Electronics 2000, the scheme reportedly involved a third-party procurement intermediary, Levanon Kogan, which facilitates purchases for vendors not registered with Intel. Although Intel has not accused Levanon Kogan of wrongdoing, it claims that Avtsin and Tsibolevsky used the same fraudulent tactics—obtaining quotes, reclassifying purchases as services, and channeling payments through the intermediary.

Intel alleges that this secondary route was used to process about 30 fraudulent orders totaling more than 2 million shekels (roughly $561,000).

Avtsin was among a wave of layoffs at Intel Israel in late 2024, which the company said was due to a slowdown in operations and unrelated to any misconduct, as the fraud had not yet been uncovered at that time.

Intel is now seeking full restitution of the embezzled funds and any profits gained by the defendants from the scheme.