Three Men Charged in $129 Million AI Impersonation Scheme Targeting Company Executives
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed an indictment accusing Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan and Guy Sheetrit of using AI-cloned voices and faces of chief executives and lawyers to trick employees into wiring more than $129 million to accounts they controlled.
Three men were charged in the United States with using artificial intelligence to copy the voices and faces of company chief executives and lawyers in a fraud that prosecutors say took more than $129 million from businesses, the Justice Department said Thursday.
Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan and Guy Sheetrit face seven counts each, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering conspiracy. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison. All three were arrested in Europe and are awaiting extradition to the United States: Soall, 41, in Spain in June; Hazan, 54, in Spain in August; and Sheetrit, 42, in the United Kingdom in September.
How the scheme worked
According to the indictment, unsealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the men ran the scheme from July 2024 through February 2026. They used AI tools to mimic the voices, and in some cases the faces, of chief executives, then contacted accounting employees who could approve large wire transfers, posing as the executive and asking for help with a confidential transaction.
The employees were made to sign nondisclosure agreements before being directed to call a lawyer who supposedly worked for a major international law firm. Prosecutors say members of the group then posed as that lawyer to convince the employee the transaction was real, and had the money sent to bank accounts they controlled around the world. The funds were then converted into cryptocurrency, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say the group targeted thousands of companies, including banks, financial technology firms and hospitals. The indictment names losses at six companies, among others: about $11.6 million from a financial technology company based in the United Kingdom, about $4.8 million from a hospital system based in Missouri, about $4.6 million from a mutual fund company based in Massachusetts, about $5.2 million from a pet food company based in Florida, about $3 million from a hospital system based in California, and about $2.7 million from a bank based in Rhode Island.
Prosecutors also said Soall kept a handwritten script titled “Lawyer Call” for his role as the fake attorney, and that Hazan, who was previously convicted in Manhattan federal court of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in 2008, had boasted of laundering money since 1994 and handling more than $400 million over the previous three years.
Prosecutors warn of AI-enabled crime
“SI technology offers tremendous potential. But the public should recognize that there are some who seek to use this emerging technology to pursue criminal goals,” U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said in a statement. Prosecutors used the term “super intelligence,” the name set out in President Donald Trump’s September executive order renaming artificial intelligence in federal communications.
James Barnacle Jr., assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office, said the case “demonstrates how the use of advanced technology can be exploited to commit large scale fraud.” The FBI asked anyone who believes they were a victim to report it at tips.fbi.gov. The charges are allegations, and the men have not been convicted.
Reporting based on coverage by ICLG, The Guardian and NBC News.
