“I forged the contract”: Promai CEO allegedly confesses in sting to faking Boeing deal with ChatGPT
New transcripts shed light on dramatic sting operation and the fabrication of fake customer contracts to woo investors.
The man in his 60s who arrived at a Bnei Brak office building last Monday had no idea what was waiting for him. He had been invited by the daughter of his mistress—Dr. Dina Olga Goren-Bar, founder and 78% shareholder of the startup PromaI—under the pretense of a private business meeting with a lawyer. Instead, the meeting turned out to be a sting.
Shortly after Erez Ben Eshay, 62, of Moshav Sitria, settled in, private investigators from Wizman-Yaar, hired by PromaI, entered the room. According to court filings, they presented him with evidence gathered from his company computer and began questioning him. Over the next few hours, Ben Eshay reportedly confessed to a months-long campaign of systematic fraud, including fabricating contracts with some of the world’s biggest companies in order to mislead shareholders and investors.
A lawsuit filed by Promai in Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday accuses Ben Eshay of causing the company to invest roughly NIS 20 million—nearly all of its funding—into developing products for Boeing, Tesla, and Medtronic, none of which had ever ordered them.
According to the suit, Ben Eshay had built trust with Dr. Goren by portraying himself as a retired brigadier general and test pilot in the Israeli Air Force. “The defendant fraudulently gained Dr. Goren’s trust, and she formed a personal relationship with him,” the complaint reads. “It now turns out that he is married and living with another woman, and the stories he told about being away on operational missions were completely fabricated.”
On the basis of those misrepresentations, the suit claims, Goren granted him 12% equity in the company and appointed him CEO. Ben Eshay denies the allegations and is being sued for NIS 10 million in damages.
In transcripts submitted to the court, however, he is quoted admitting: “I served in the Air Force for five years at the Flight Test Center. I was involved in development, but I’m not a pilot,” Ben Eshay, who holds both Romanian and Israeli citizenship, told investigators, according to transcripts. He described a series of roles he held after leaving the IDF, including at a company he said was sold, earning him $1 million, and a position as CTO of Rit Technologies, which he said he left in 2011 “due to a dispute with the CEO.” From 2013 to 2022, he said, he worked in the sailing industry and opened a school in Cyprus called “Ocean Yachting” that later closed. He claims to own a yacht docked in Ashkelon, registered under an English company (“46 feet, about 14 meters, I estimate it’s worth 80,000 euros”). A shared love of sailing, he testified, was what initially connected him and Dr. Goren.
“In 2022 I met Dina,” he was quoted as saying. “We sailed a lot and grew close. She shared some of her ideas, and that’s where it all began. She founded the company—77–78% to Dina, 12% to me, and about 10% to Howard Miller.”
“It started in February 2024,” testified the former CEO of the company, which operates out of Tel Aviv and employs about 40 people. “That’s when I started inventing contracts with customers who had supposedly signed deals to purchase the product or had shown interest.”
He added: “I fabricated all the agreements in advance. There was no correspondence with the officials from these companies, no deal summaries, no actual expressions of interest in the product. I want to state that I forged the documents to create a false impression for potential investors and shareholders.”
Investigators showed Ben Eshay a document found on his computer with Boeing’s logo, signed by the company’s CEO David Calhoun and dated May 23, 2024. “I invented this document,” he said. “Calhoun’s signature was taken from the internet.”
Investigator: Did you ever speak or correspond with him?
Ben Eshay: “No.”
Investigator: Who drafted the agreement?
Ben Eshay: “I did. I asked ChatGPT to draft a letter on behalf of Boeing, supposedly attaching a contract and compliments about the company’s activities. I asked the chat to create a Boeing stamp with the CEO and legal advisor’s signatures.”
Investigator: Did you speak to anyone from Boeing?
Ben Eshay: “I contacted a few Boeing executives via LinkedIn, and apart from a laconic reply directing me to the company website, I had no interaction.”
Attorneys Ariel Shmul and Avital Kidron, who represent Ben Eshay, responded:
“Our client denies all allegations against him. These claims are entirely baseless and completely fabricated. Our client acted lawfully and ethically in his capacity as CEO. He has suffered significant personal and financial harm due to the conduct of certain individuals within the company. The use of his name in this affair is a mistake, and he is not responsible for the situation. At most, this appears to be a commercial dispute among other parties — not one involving our client.”
Attorneys David Forer and Limor Levy, who represent Promai, said: “As detailed in the lawsuit, the Wizman-Yaar Investigations Company documented the defendant confessing both in writing and verbally. In light of this, the denial by his lawyers is puzzling. The defendant should assist the company in repairing the severe damage he caused.”
