[Israel Business Series] The Role of Blockchain in Secure Transactions With Bezalel Raviv

Bezalel Raviv is the Founder of Lionsgate Network, a company specializing in cyber intelligence, blockchain analysis, and fraud detection services. He has an impressive track record in helping victims recover their funds from scams involving cryptocurrencies and online frauds. Recently, Bezalel’s company has been in the spotlight after it thwarted hacking attempts and intercepted an impressive $90 million in Hamas funds. Bezalel is also the Founder and CEO of Halleluiah, a company that introduced music to metaverse, paving a new culture of copyrights management through blockchain.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [3:07] Bezalel Raviv explains how Lionsgate intercepted $90 million in Hamas funds
• [4:32] The tech behind identifying illegal money holders through blockchain
• [6:32] The followthrough process after identifying fraudulent transactions
• [8:00] Bezalel talks about Lionsgate’s focus on conclusion rather than the data
• [14:05] The role and impact of Lionsgate Network in fighting crypto scams
• [15:11] The positive and negative aspects of cryptocurrency
• [16:27] Bezalel shares his motivation behind starting Lionsgate Network
• [26:09] Who should be contacting Lionsgate Network for help?

In this episode…

Today, the extensive use of the internet has connected people globally, making sharing information and even funds much easier. With billions of people embracing this technology, scams and various forms of exploitation are increasingly common. What support systems are in place for victims of internet fraud?

Bezalel Raviv outlines the process his company, Lionsgate Network, uses to help victims of scams in the crypto and digital spaces. He shares the challenges that victims face when seeking help from authorities, and how his company steps in to provide efficient solutions.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, host Dr. Jeremy Weisz welcomes Bezalel Raviv, Founder of Lionsgate Network, to discuss the crucial role they play in making blockchain transactions safer and more transparent — including a recent interception of $90 million in funds intended to fund Hamas terrorism. Bezalel’s technical expertise, diligent team, and robust technology made it possible to identify the suspects involved. He shares how his team not only investigates suspected accounts but also has a system in place for preventive monitoring. Bezalel’s ultimate goal goes beyond gathering data — it’s about ensuring a conclusion that serves justice and improves blockchain security.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Bezalel Raviv on LinkedIn
• Lionsgate Network

Special Mention(s):

• Halleluiah

Related episode(s):

• [Top Israel Leader Series] Engineering the Autonomous Revolution with Rabbi Mois Navon of Mobileye on the Inspired Insider podcast
• [SaaS & Israel Business Series] Cybersecurity Threats: Detecting and Mitigating Risks With Ran Geva on the Inspired Insider podcast

Quotable Moment(s)

• “Just like the good story of Alice in Wonderland — you enter the rabbit hole, and you know that the only way out is with the rabbit.”
• “I believe in music, and I believe in God. And I believe that music is a high-energy instrument that can activate great cells in the brain.”
• “First of all, if you want to support human beings that are helpless in Gaza, do it through the Red Cross and UN. Already spoken with them? Do it through the channels where you support human beings.”
• “But without offering liability for accountability to anything you can find, we can find ourselves as a culture in a gloomy place, really. Because you can cook a chicken in the oven, but you can also cook the men in it.”

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:01

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 0:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today I am excited to introduce the founder of Lionsgate Network with Bezalel Raviv and Bezalel before I formally introduce you. I always like to point out other episodes people should check out of the podcast. Since this is part of the Israel business leaders series, I had a really interesting interview with Luis Navone of Mobileye, one of the founding engineers at Mobileye. And he talked about the journey of being acquired. Mobileye was acquired by Intel for $15.3 billion. But what’s interesting about the story was the ups and the downs. Right, there was a lot of sacrifice, a lot of downs and challenges throughout this journey. So check that one out. Also did another one with Ran Geva, a founder of Webz.io. He helps companies with brand protection, monitors the dark web, and security for companies. And this kind of relates to today’s interview. So I’m excited to dig into that. But check that one out with Ran.

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I’m excited to introduce Bezalel Raviv. He’s the founder of Lionsgate Network. And Lionsgate Network provides blockchain intelligence analysis and recovery for your crypto funds and their specialty is actually to create a customized roadmap to help their clients successfully recover money. Okay, what does that look like? That looks like recently, Bezalel, Lionsgate has rocked the crypto world falling hacks, scams and intercepting $90 million in Hamas funds. That’d be one example of many, but it’s all thanks for joining me.

Bezalel Raviv 2:49

Thank you for having me. 

Jeremy Weisz 2:52

Let’s dig in. We’ll talk about Lionsgate. Why you started this company, what you do, but start with intercepting $90 million in Hamas funds. What happened there?

Bezalel Raviv 3:07

All right. So I was in Switzerland on a trip. It was basically 36 hours before the war started. And as the war started on a Saturday morning, I think every Jew and Israeli in the world was like, Okay, this is a catastrophe.

Obviously, I was with my nephew, and we scheduled the return back to Israel, because that’s what we do. We’ve scheduled to come back to our homeland. And on the third day of the war, I got a phone call from a friend of mine, who we worked with, we did some work together. And she’s saying Okay, listen, I have someone from Microsoft online with me and we’ve received a few crypto wallets from the Ministry of Defense. We need your help. Obviously she’s familiar with my work. And with the company of Lionsgate Network, and from that moment, it’s a roller coaster.

As she basically shared with me information about suspected Hamas wallets, the VISTA of those wallets were linked to a campaign of save Gazas. The back end is terrorist activities. So she’s sending the information because obviously we are working at Lionsgate Network with personal cases, okay, or business related cases, to people that lost access to their money or crypto in any way, right.

So we’ve basically monitored and you know, analyzed 12 specific cases dedicated to what we do. And the terror relations to crypto was the 13th case we started working on. We did not know what we’re doing in that case, because we’ve never done it before. So it was a surprise. So everything that we’ve trained ourselves with other 12 scenarios, we’ve exercised with a new one saying, let’s see what happens. Incredibly enough, in four minutes. Okay, we already have the identity of the holder of the wallet. And that’s incredible, as we’ve been very lucky, because normally, it takes us an hour to cross reference from a wallet address, crypto to an ID, and that is the critical element as without an ID, you can’t, you know, seize any funds, right? 

So basically, the call out was from the Ministry of Defense, right? In order for the minister, you have a garland to sign the seizing letter, right? So they can take it to court and the court can see the evidence and say, okay, it’s fine to seize it. So the whole operation really was messed with one component, which was the identity linkage to the wallet. And that’s something we’ve provided with 10s of different wallets, crypto wallets, relevant to that specific campaign. So hope I did not bore you to death. 

Jeremy Weisz 6:32

No. So talk about when you discover the linkage, right? You’re identifying specific people that were involved.

Bezalel Raviv 6:41

Yes. They’re very their face, their eyeballs, their LinkedIn, their social media, everything. And obviously, we’re ecstatic. Because, you know, we didn’t expect it to be that successful that quickly. And obviously, we transmit the information. And next thing we know, we receive a link indicating that those funds were forever seized by the Israeli government. 

Jeremy Weisz 7:14

How do you then continue to monitor this? In this situation it sounds like they came with, we need you to look into these accounts, is there a way to monitor other activity? So as a preventative measure is opposed to..?

Bezalel Raviv 7:27

A lot of data that comes across when you’re investigating one single case, right? Everything that came in and out, everything that is connected to that person, everything that person did, you know, ever. So there’s a lot of information, you mostly have to ignore most of it to be able to focus on what’s needed to solve the case. So that’s what we are trained to do. Okay. We are very much Pavlovic, to resolution, a conclusion. And that’s, that’s what we have to do with each and every case. The conclusion is the essential fact or bottom line for all cases. Because finding information about cases, a lot of companies in our competition and analysis offer it right. Give you a lot of information about that wallet. That’s great, but we’re not interested with the data, or interested with the conclusion. 

And in that case, with Hamas wallets, the conclusion was one, let’s stop that money from going to terrorist activities to fund terrorists and terrorism. So that money will be with Israel. Okay, so we can rebuild the southern part of Israel that was destroyed through the attacks on the seventh. So that’s what we saw in us. We pushed very hard because the more success we had, the less sleep we had. And the more fortunate we had as far as a successful ending to each and every case. We realized that there is a far bigger story to anything we’ve done.

Jeremy Weisz 9:20

Is there you mentioned you know, now that you can that make sense, you see these accounts, whatever it is 13 accounts, and there is some kind of digital trail, right, of things coming in, things going out. Does that give you insight into what other accounts should be looked into?

Bezalel Raviv 9:41

Yeah, first of all, it’s 13 scenarios that we’ve tackled, and over 100 various Hamas wallets. Yeah, this is just like, you know, just like the good story of Alice in Wonderland. You enter the rabbit hole, and you know that the only way out is with the rabbit. A lot of people are losing their mind in that sense because they’re, you know, in a vacuum looking for Intel that is relevant to a case. So we’re always searching for the rabbit again. And you’re flooded with information, because over 120 million crypto wallets are active on a daily basis. Each and everyone is you know, I’ve heard Jane between five to six transactions a day. So you can imagine the kind of information you’re surfing in. And most of the time, there is one indication to a conclusion. Right. 

So to answer your question, it was quite interesting to notice that activities that we were not searching for, I’ve given us indication for relations. Citizens in Europe that are funding those campaigns to support terrorism. And interestingly enough, because only lately, it was published, that in Germany and France, it is illegal. That’s new, a new law to fund terrorism. Okay, can you imagine this is an in your in Europe, just recently, it’s not. And I think Europe is waking up to the day after, you know, realizing that the heat is actually, you know, closer than ever, right. Political social level, and, and basically, to witness tens of millions of dollars that are being funded by European citizens. 

So it gave us an interesting, I say responsibility for this. It gave me the imagination to think about why not? Why just unveil the holder of the funds. That’s one way, why not also unveil the donors? Why not expose the donors. And that’s a campaign that we are dedicating some time to, with everything that we do, because I think there’s two things that will come out of it. First of all, if you want to support human beings that are helpless in Gaza, do it through the Red Cross and UN. Already spoken with them? Do it through the channels where you support human beings. First of all, education for those who actually give money to terrorism without thinking about it. Secondly, if you want to support terrorism, know that you can be exposed as well. 

So two things that we are offering in this campaign, that at the moment, we are in discussion to launch, we do it anyway now, because we’re exercising. Because when you target an intercept, one wallet, that’s one thing with one identity. Now, the back end is that a lot of people fund that wallet right, on a donation campaign. So we’re finding the easiest way, or the easier way really, to also intercept identities on donor sites. We couldn’t have thought about it before. It wasn’t available, because we have not, you know, received access to that information.

Jeremy Weisz 13:57

So is that, I’m curious, where you’re focusing a lot of your efforts right now.

Bezalel Raviv 14:05

Solving cases, as always, that’s our bread and butter. Intercepting black hats. In crypto, but black hats is the big name right? It’s not like you know, mystical people that attack other people on blockchain will be there to investigate and manifest a solution for you. If it was worth $25,000. Or if it was for $40 million. It doesn’t matter. Obviously, it’s very complex. It’s hyper intense. Each and every case is on its own as it has its own merits and own parameters. But we are getting higher and higher success rate with each and every case we solve because we kind of infiltrate how people operate.

Jeremy Weisz 15:00

You know, before we hit record we are talking about, there’s a lot of battlefields here. So what should people know about these battlefields? 

Bezalel Raviv 15:11

Marvelous question because the feedback is a two way door. There is a positive positive angle and the negative or the optimistic or the pessimistic. The optimistic is that blockchain may offer a lot of freedom to a lot of people with their finances. Because blockchain is a culture. And blockchain is a philosophy. And blockchain is a very advanced technology that can be used for both good and bad. But without offering liability for accountability to anything you can find, we can find ourselves as a culture in a gloomy place, really. Because you can cook a chicken in the oven, but you can also cook the men in it. And that’s something we’re looking at if it makes sense.

Jeremy Weisz 16:27

Talk about how you got into this? What was the idea to start Lionsgate?

Bezalel Raviv 16:35

Well, that’s an interesting story. Basically, what happened is that I was taken to a meeting to invest in a company that does blockchain analysis, and help people recover their funds. And I asked, what do you do? Because they wanted me to invest. And I said, what do you do? I mean, what is your secret sauce? Tell me. And I was like, under the impression that I’m not getting the feedback that I wanted to hear, right? So I was like, Okay, I’m not going to invest in it. Let’s move on. At the time, I invested in a company that is called Halleluiah, which is music copyrights on blockchain. Because music is something that I adore effortlessly. I recorded music, I was a musician for over 10 years. I was tutored to be a musician. But at some point, I gave up that idea as a profession, because it didn’t pay the bills. And the reason it didn’t pay the bill is because the financial models of music, even today, are horrible for musicians. You own the asset, but you get paid as if you are the bag of bone in the model. 

So it’s funny. So I said I want to build something, a new culture of copyrights management through blockchain, because blockchain again can offer you that platform to introduce something new. My premise back then was introducing music to the metaverse, sorry for the long story, and we’re gonna we’re gonna make we’re gonna help meet people make with existing music, new dollars for from virtual environment. But Metaverse had pivoted out of what we felt is interesting for the company or for the industry. 

And my father at that time passed away. He checked out. And I was like, okay, I can’t do Halleluiah at the moment. I took my 30 days. And I was like, I don’t know how to pick myself up. And for some reason, that meeting with that guy who took me to invest in our recovery of crypto. I said, I actually can do this project far better. And I got addicted, really. I was mesmerizing through r&d. Because everything that I learned on blockchain on music copyrights was relevant to blockchain of crypto. So really, Halleluiah is the base ground of Lionsgate Network. It gave me the instrument to not only see things that crypto recovery companies couldn’t see, but also to exercise a service that is worthwhile to millions of people around the world.