A private jet is a status symbol of the ultra-wealthy. Israeli business magnates such as Nochi Dankner, Teddy Sagi, Chaim Katzman and others have owned or still own private jets, which cost millions of dollars annually. However, many who can afford it avoid owning private jets to prevent attracting criticism and instead rent them as needed for vacations or business trips.
In 2011, Yaniv Salmon recognized this need and founded Galrom Aviation, a company specializing in brokering flight hours for the ultra-wealthy. Galrom's method involved collecting a deposit of about $400,000 from clients, committing to arrange flight services on demand, and deducting from the deposit for each flight, leaving a "balance for use."
Over the years, Galrom became almost the sole provider in this sector, boasting a client list from Israel’s business elite, including Leon Koffler (Super-Pharm), Yishai Davidi (FIMI), Eyal Waldman (Mellanox), Asi Shmeltzer (Shlomo Group), Jonathan Kolber, Shlomo Dovrat (Viola), Rami Kalish (Pitango), Roy Ben-Yami (LR), Muki Schneidman (Direct Insurance), Meir Shamir (Mivtach Shamir), Drorit Wertheim (Coca-Cola), Zohar Levy (Summit), Danny Salkind (Electra), Asi Touchmair (Israel Canada), Yoav Harlap (Colmobil), singer Omer Adam and many others.
Galrom charged a substantial commission for brokering between flight providers and clients, and after over 13 years of successful operations, Salmon became a wealthy businessman. However, in recent months, the idyll ended. Some prominent clients, including Kolber and Shmeltzer, filed lawsuits against Galrom and Salmon in court. The proceedings revealed a list of dozens of top-tier clients to whom Galrom and Salmon owed hundreds of thousands of shekels each. Most of them simply did not receive the full service for the deposits they had paid.
In a lawsuit filed by Kolber in May for the return of $329,000, he claimed that for a flight he ordered in April, the aircraft owner demanded a personal guarantee from him stating that if Galrom did not pay for the flight, he would bear the cost. Three weeks later, Kolber was indeed required to pay for the flight.
"It became clear to me that Salmon had taken significant funds from clients in what appears to be a systematic fraudulent scheme of diverting funds and concealing them in various places," Kolber claimed. He noted in the lawsuit that the company’s services required discreet handling to protect user privacy and that Salmon had developed personal relationships with the clients. Consequently, most businesspeople preferred not to sue Salmon to avoid exposure.
It emerged that Salmon had accumulated over $18 million in debt and had become insolvent. Attorney Lior Markowitz was appointed as Galrom’s trustee by the Be’er Sheva District Court. In his initial report submitted in June, he alleged that there was suspicion of fraud on Salmon’s part, who used incoming funds to pay off other high-interest loans he had taken out, in a sort of Ponzi scheme.
After the trustee's appointment, the company submitted a report to the court listing its creditors, revealing the billionaires who fell victim to what some now describe as a "scam." Others, like Jackie Ben-Zaken and Eyal Waldman, appear in the list as those who loaned money to the company. Salmon himself claims he did not use the deposits of Galrom’s clients.
Salmon, 47, a resident of Moshav Lachish, claimed through his attorney Yariv Vaknin that Galrom's downturn began with the COVID-19 pandemic and after it attempted to expand its business into other areas. Galrom invested in another company he founded, Plantfood, which had a franchise to establish a restaurant under Chef Moshe Segev at the Yes Planet cinema complex in Be’er Sheva. Salmon invested five million shekels, and Galrom additionally covered millions in losses. The trustee claimed in his report that the company paid significant amounts, including unlawful preferential creditor payments, and lacked tangible assets.
One of the businessmen left with a debt remarked to Ynet's sister publication Calcalist that Salmon "apparently doesn’t have a penny to his name," and creditors are now trying to recover part of the debt by attempting to locate Salmon's assets. The insolvency administrator ordered Salmon to pay 5,000 shekels ($1,300) a month into the creditors' fund.
Another lawsuit against Salmon, amounting to 715,000 shekels ($186,000), was filed on behalf of Carmel Shipping. The lawsuit claims that Salmon defrauded the company and extracted 650,000 shekels ($170,000) from it through deceit. It also alleges that Salmon scammed numerous clients out of substantial sums, including borrowing 1.8 million shekels ($470,000) from a flight attendant who had borrowed the money from her father and failedto repay it.
Salmon’s attorney responded: "There is no truth whatsoever to the claims that my client acted in bad faith."
Attorney Yariv Vaknin, representing Salmon, stated in response: "Had there been any truth to the claims that my client acted in bad faith, the court and the special administrator would not have allowed him to resume the company’s operations in order to mitigate its losses. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, my client has lost everything he worked for his entire life—the company, his private home, even his marriage and family. Yet he remains determined to work and repay his debts in full even in these difficult times.
"My client worked for many years, serving Israel's wealthiest people and providing them with quality private flights to destinations worldwide. Galrom Aviation operated excellently, and after accumulating profits, a decision was made in consultation with the company’s accountant to expand the company’s investment avenues to maximize its profits. The company decided to invest in additional sectors such as the restaurant industry and even contributed to promoting crucial issues like encouraging women's soccer.
"When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, all the company’s businesses, which were naturally weaker and slower to recover, such as flights and the restaurant industry, came to an abrupt halt. From that moment, the company gradually became deficit-ridden and struggled for its survival. Unfortunately, the state did not adequately compensate the company, and the compensation given was far below the damages incurred.
"As a result, incoming funds were used, among other things, to cover delays and payments needed to operate and rehabilitate the company. My client and the company never took deposit funds; rather, the company’s revenues were used for all company expenses, including management, marketing, advertising, maintenance, and payments to VIP service providers for the company’s clients, among others. It is evident that there is no single deposit account that was opened, but my client’s clients purchased a bank of hours, paying for those hours in advance. Most of the funds were transferred to various airlines and other company expenses.
"After three years of attempts to rehabilitate the company and my client’s belief that he could overcome the economic crisis, the banks began closing the company’s bank accounts, and the company faced difficulties amounting to over 70 million shekels. My client is cooperating with the special administrator appointed in the case and has even agreed to the proposal to resume company operations under court supervision to try and repay all creditors."