US charges 3 men with impersonating CEOs to steal $129 million
Prosecutors say the men used AI to alter voices and images of executives and lawyers, tricking staff at hospitals, a bank and a mutual fund into wiring money.
Summary
In brief
- Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan and Guy Sheetrit face wire fraud and money-laundering charges
- Prosecutors say AI-altered voices and images of executives fooled staff into wiring money
- Victims include hospital systems, a Rhode Island bank and a UK tech company
US prosecutors in Manhattan charged three men with using AI to impersonate company executives and lawyers and steal more than $129 million from businesses worldwide, the Justice Department said on Friday.
The case shows altered voices and images of senior executives being turned against the payment approvals companies rely on, with alleged victims ranging from hospital systems to a bank, a mutual fund and a pet food company.
The defendants, Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit, are foreign nationals charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, several counts of money-laundering conspiracy and aggravated identity theft, according to a press release from the US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, which announced a newly unsealed indictment.
Prosecutors allege the men used AI to alter and impersonate the voices and images of executives, then contacted employees at various companies and said they needed help with sensitive financial transactions. The employees were told to get in touch with lawyers at a large international law firm, and the men then posed as one of those lawyers to have the money wired.
According to the Justice Department, the scheme took nearly $5 million from a hospital system headquartered in Missouri, about $5 million from a pet food company in Florida, over $4.6 million from a Massachusetts mutual fund, about $3 million from a California hospital system and about $2.7 million from a Rhode Island bank. More than $11 million came from a UK tech company.
The money went to bank accounts in the United States, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Austria, Slovakia and China. The men then allegedly converted it into cryptocurrency “in an attempt to conceal the source, ownership, and control of the stolen proceeds,” the department said.
The alleged scheme orchestrated by Soall, Hazan, and Sheetrit demonstrates how the use of advanced technology can be exploited to commit large-scale fraud.
— James C. Barnacle Jr., FBI assistant director in charge
Prosecutors said the alleged fraud ran from 2024 to 2026. Soall and Hazan were arrested in Spain over the summer, and Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September.