Eight former employees of Bank Leumi tried to blackmail the bank’s management by threatening to make public the details of some one million credit cards, it was cleared for publication on Saturday night.

Police have released the names of five of the suspects in the blackmail attempt: Ziv Drin, Avraham David, Assaf Mor, Elad Abulafia and Moti Shilon. They were brought before the Rishon Lezion Magistrates Court on Saturday night, and the court extended their remand until Thursday.

According to police, the saga began two weeks ago when one of the suspects, who was fired from the bank about a year ago, sent management a letter in which he wrote that he was in the possession of the details of many credit cards. The suspect explained that while working at the bank’s credit card company, Leumi Card, he copied sensitive information. He demanded huge sums of money in exchange for not making the data in his possession public or selling it. Bank management informed the Lahav 433 unit of the police, which launched a comprehensive investigation.

The eight suspects, of whom seven are in Israel and the eighth is in Thailand, were arrested on Saturday. Their homes were searched in order to locate other computers that may contain sensitive files.

The police statement said that investigators were able to prevent the suspects’ ability to realize their threat of making the credit card information in their possession public.

Bank Leumi made clear that at no stage was any damage caused to its customers.