On August 15, 2025, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVPD) announced the arrest of eight individuals accused of being child sex predators during an undercover operation. Of those individuals, one was Tom Artiom Alexandrovich (age 38). LVPD's press release did not go into additional detail about this person. Shortly after, many news article were published alleging that this individual was the Executive Director as the Israel National Cyber Directorate. Alexandrovich's LinkedIn page (now deleted, screenshot below) appears to confirm his employment. Those arrested, including Alexandrovich, "face felony charges of Luring a Child with Computer for Sex Act" according to the LVPD. Per news articles, he was in town to attend the annual Black Hat Briefings when he was arrested.
According to one article, Israel's Prime Minister's office released a statement saying an employee was "detained" and "returned to Israel as scheduled" without naming anyone. This contradicts the LVPD statement which clearly stated all eight were arrested and brought to a jail. Another article states that after questioning, "Alexandrovich returned to Israel and was placed on leave from the directorate."
At this time, it is unclear why Alexandrovich was allowed to leave the United States so quickly. Rumors began quickly after saying that the current United States Administration had a hand in the early release and permission to return to Israel. Since then, acting United States Attorney Sigal Chattah released a brief statement confirming the arrest but did not speak to anything else. The U.S. State Department's Near Eastern Affairs tweeted that he "did not claim diplomatic immunity and was released by a state judge pending a court date. Any claims that the U.S. government intervened are false." Many were quick to point out that Sigal Chattah is an Israeli-born American and a Republican nominee in the 2022 Nevada Attorney General election In March, 2025, President Donald Trump "announced the appointment of Sigal Chattah as the interim United States Attorney for the District of Nevada."
