In February of 2003, Yuval Perez, a/k/a "Israel", along with 7 other co-conspirators, was indicted on charges of conspiracy, extortion, and making a false bill of lading.  Investigators believe that Perez and his co‐conspirators lured numerous customers with artificially low moving estimates, and then extorted them by holding their household goods hostage until they paid fraudulently inflated prices.

Perez was a foreman for Elite Van Lines Moving & Storage, a Florida-based moving company.  As a foreman for Elite Van Lines, Perez supervised the actual loading and the delivery of customers' goods.  According to court documents, Between September 2001 and November 2002, Perez's co-conspirators solicited business for Elite Van Lines by offering artificially low estimates for moving prices. Once the customers' goods had been loaded, Perez would inflate the total price of the move by fraudulently claiming that the customers' goods occupied more cubic feet than had been originally estimated and/or by overcharging the customers for packing materials.

Perez and his co-conspirators would demand full payment of the inflated price before Elite Van Lines would deliver their goods. He ignored customers' repeated complaints about the inflated price and/or lied to the customers about the delivery of their goods, often using false names when dealing with customers over the telephone and in writing. When customers refused to pay the inflated price, Perez and his co-conspirators arranged to warehouse customers' goods and refused to divulge the location of the goods to customers.

Perez was born in Israel and was last known to be residing in Sunrise, Florida.