Three individuals have been indicted on charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after allegedly using artificial intelligence to impersonate corporate executives and legal professionals in a scheme that netted approximately $129 million, prosecutors announced Thursday.
According to an indictment filed in the U.S. District Court in New York, Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit, 42, carried out their AI-driven scheme over the course of more than eighteen months, targeting thousands of companies across the globe.
Court documents reveal that their victims spanned multiple industries and states, including hospital systems in Missouri and California, a bank in Rhode Island, a financial technology firm in the United Kingdom, a mutual fund company in Massachusetts, and a pet food company in Florida.
The defendants, who have ties to Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates, were additionally charged with money laundering, according to the indictment.
Legal representatives for Soall and Sheetrit did not respond promptly to requests for comment, and it remained unclear whether Hazan had retained legal counsel. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York also did not respond to a media inquiry in a timely manner.
All three individuals were arrested between June and September , Soall and Hazan in Spain, and Sheetrit in the United Kingdom. Extradition proceedings for all three defendants remain pending.
Court records indicate that Hazan was previously convicted in 2008 in a New York court on charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
The three suspects, who operated under nicknames including “Rocky Balboa,” “Superman Cash,” and “Fat Boy,” frequently directed their efforts toward the accounting departments of targeted organizations. According to court documents, they would send fraudulent emails appearing to originate from the company’s chief executive officer, requesting assistance with a confidential financial transaction.
They would subsequently arrange a phone or video call during which artificial intelligence technology was employed to replicate the voice and, in some instances, the visual likeness of the CEO, as outlined in the indictment.
Employees were then instructed to reach out to an attorney at a prominent law firm , a role the group was equally prepared to fabricate, according to court documents.
Soall primarily assumed the identities of attorneys based in the United Kingdom and reportedly possessed a “handwritten script titled ‘Lawyer Call’ that he utilized to make himself seem like a real attorney when speaking with and defrauding victims,” as stated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The individual posing as an attorney would then direct the targeted employee to wire substantial sums of money to bank accounts located around the world. Those funds were subsequently converted into cryptocurrency in an effort to obscure their origins, before being distributed among the three defendants and their associates, according to court documents.
FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. emphasized that the case serves as a stark illustration of how sophisticated technology can be exploited to perpetrate large-scale financial fraud.
“As criminals continue to weaponize emerging technologies, the FBI remains committed to rapidly adapting our capabilities to identify, investigate and disrupt those who seek to harm New Yorkers and businesses operating in our communities,” he said in a statement.
Should the defendants be found guilty, they face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years on most charges. The aggravated identity theft charge carries a separate maximum sentence of two years, according to the attorney’s office.
