Federal prosecutors have unsealed an indictment charging three men with running an elaborate fraud scheme that used artificial intelligence to impersonate chief executives and lawyers, stealing more than $129 million from companies in the United States and Europe.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged Jacob Soall, 41, of Marbella, Spain, and Britain; Sharon Hazan, 54, of Israel; and Guy Sheetrit, 42, of Israel and the United Arab Emirates, with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering, according to a report from The New York Times. All three are now awaiting extradition to the United States after being arrested in separate countries over several months starting in June: Soall in Spain, Hazan in Israel, and Sheetrit in Britain.
According to prosecutors, the scheme operated for roughly 18 months beginning in July 2024 and followed a repeated playbook. An employee at a targeted company, typically someone in accounting or finance, would receive an email that appeared to come from a company executive. In one case detailed in the indictment, an email sent in October 2024 to a major investment bank in New York City asked an employee to sign a nondisclosure agreement and then call a supposed lawyer.
The defendants allegedly used the names of real attorneys at legitimate law firms, often pulling from among the 50 largest firms in the world, to lend credibility to the impersonation. Soall allegedly kept a handwritten script titled “Lawyer Call” that he used to guide victims through the fraudulent conversations, leaning on regulatory jargon and warnings about insider trading to justify demands for secrecy and to keep victims from discussing the calls with coworkers.
Investigators say the conspirators went beyond voice impersonation, attempting to draw employees into video calls featuring deepfakes of chief executives. The aim throughout was to convince employees to wire money to accounts the defendants controlled.
Money Moved Through Nine Countries
Once victims transferred funds, prosecutors say the money flowed into bank accounts controlled by the conspirators in Austria, China, Greece, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. From there, the funds were allegedly converted into cryptocurrency to hide their origin before being divided among the defendants.
Hazan and Sheetrit are accused of laundering the proceeds in addition to other roles in the scheme. Hazan allegedly bragged about laundering more than $400 million over the past three years. The men reportedly used aliases, including “Rocky Balboa” for Soall and “Superman Cash” and “Fat Boy,” among others, for Hazan.
Victims Spanned Five States and Britain
The indictment names several victims across the country and overseas:
- A regional hospital system in Missouri, which lost $4.8 million
- A British financial technology company, which lost $11.6 million
- A pet food company in Florida, which lost $5 million
- A hospital system in California, which lost $3 million
- A mutual fund company in Massachusetts, which lost $4.7 million
- A bank based in Rhode Island, which lost $2.7 million
The case underscores a growing concern among law enforcement and corporate security officials: that AI tools capable of mimicking voices and faces are making it easier for criminals to convincingly impersonate company leadership and extract large sums before anyone notices something is wrong.
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