Three charged in $129 million AI impersonation fraud case

Federal prosecutors have charged three men with using artificial intelligence to impersonate corporate executives and lawyers in a scheme that allegedly stole more than $129 million from companies around the world.

An indictment filed in the Southern District of New York accuses Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit, 42, of targeting companies from July 2024 to February 2026. The charges include wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Extradition requests for all three are pending.

Prosecutors say the group typically approached employees in accounting departments with an email that appeared to come from their chief executive, asking for help with a confidential financial transaction. A follow-up phone or video call used AI to mimic the executive’s voice and, sometimes, image, according to court documents. The purported executive then directed the employee to contact an attorney at a major law firm. That attorney, prosecutors say, was also an impersonator who instructed the employee to wire money to an account controlled by the group.

The group moved the money through bank accounts around the world and converted it into cryptocurrency to conceal its source, ownership and control before distributing it among those involved, prosecutors said.

The alleged victims included hospital systems in Missouri and California, a Rhode Island bank, a U.K. financial technology company, a Massachusetts mutual fund company and a Florida pet food company. NBC News also reported that prosecutors identified a New York investment bank among the victims. CBS News reported that the group targeted thousands of companies worldwide.

Soall, who prosecutors say is from Spain and the U.K., was arrested in Spain in June. He allegedly impersonated U.K. attorneys and used a handwritten script titled “Lawyer Call” to sound convincing when speaking with victims. Hazan, from Israel, was arrested in Spain in August, while Sheetrit, from Israel and the United Arab Emirates, was arrested in the U.K. in September. Prosecutors accuse both Hazan and Sheetrit of laundering proceeds from the scheme.

According to NBC News, prosecutors allege Hazan boasted that he had laundered more than $400 million in the previous three years and was “number one all over the world” among professional money launderers. Hazan was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in a New York federal court in 2008.

CBS News reported that lawyers for Soall and Sheetrit did not immediately respond to requests for comment and that it was unclear whether Hazan had an attorney.

The outlets gave differing accounts of the possible sentences. NBC News reported that each of the seven charges carries a maximum of 20 years in prison. CBS News reported that the maximum is 20 years except for aggravated identity theft, which carries a maximum of two years.