Amir Bramly (, alternative English: Amir Bramli) (born October 4, 1976) is an Israeli investor and business man convicted of money laundering and fraud. He is the founder and former manager of Rubicon Business Group (in dissolution) and "Kela Fund" (in dissolution), and former partner in Hagshama fund. At the height of his career, Bramly controlled dozens of companies, and received intense media coverage both of his own dealings and as an interviewed expert.
Amidst allegations of his businesses being a ponzi scheme Bramly's business empire was placed in permanent liquidation in January 2016, and a court order prohibiting disposition of assets was placed on Bramly and members of his family.
In October 2020, Bramly was convicted of money laundering, massive fraud, theft and other offenses.
In February 2021 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Early life and first business dealings
Bramly grew up in Acre. His mother was a kindergarten teacher and his father a computer technician who after leaving Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, attempted to open an independent business, failed, and experienced financial hardship. Bramly claims that this early hardship provided much of his drive to enter the business world.
At the age of 16, Bramly opened his first business - a reptile workshop for schools. According to Bramly initially the workshop was not a success, but after he offered a lecture titled "Snake Safety Precautions in the Summer", every school to which he offered the workshop took him up. At the height of this business, Bramly employed 5 full-time instructors, one of whom drove Bramly around as he didn't have a driver's license, and earned more money from the business than his father and mother combined.
At the age of 18 Bramly closed the reptile instruction business in order to volunteer for a year in a Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel wilderness school, after which he enlisted in the Israeli Intelligence Corps.
Following his discharge from the IDF, Bramly set up a scuba diving instruction business in Eilat. According to Bramly he raised the 40,000 NIS initial capital required for the business by telling a different story to three different banks. He sold this business in 2000 for 1,000,000 NIS.
After this he met his future wife, and traveled around the world, settling for a time in a private island in Belize in which he managed a resort. Concurrently, he studied via correspondence business administration at University of Hartford. He returned to Israel with his wife when they were expecting their first child, settling in a farm in Ramot Naftali and opening a consulting business for small and medium-sized businesses.
At some later date he moved to Zikhron Ya'akov.
2006 was a very difficult year for him. On a personal level his father passed away, and on the business front the 2006 Lebanon War nearly wiped him out financially, as most of his businesses were in the north of country and were affected by the war. Bramly has said, however, that through hard work and perseverance he was able to bounce back.
Business career 2007–2013
Rubicon Business Group
Rubicon Business Group was a personal holding company, owned wholly (100%) by Bramly, which Bramly managed actively. Most of Bramly's investments during this time period were performed via Rubicon. Rubicon invested in dozens of different companies. Some of these investments were a great success, for instance: Ezbob: Rubicon was one of the initial investors in 2011, and Amir Bramly served as Director of Global Risk in the company. Wobi: An online insurance comparison site. Rubicon purchased 50% of the site in December 2012 for at a company valuation of 8-10 million NIS, subsequently increased its holdings to 75% and exited the investment in May 2015 at a company valuation of 280 Million NIS. "Silver": A consumer credit business, which provides payment splitting at the Israeli postal bank.
However other investments such as a furniture business, restaurants, a hot air balloon, and the trash recycling public company WTP which started out with lofty ambitions and in 2014 had a peak traded value of 230 million NIS, but subsequently collapsed were not as successful.