Three Indicted in $129 Million AI Impersonation Scheme

Three people accused of using AI-generated voices and images to impersonate corporate executives and lawyers and steal about $129 million have been indicted in New York on wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money-laundering charges, prosecutors said Thursday.

Editorial·November 6, 2026·reads: 1,765

Three Indicted in $129 Million AI Impersonation Scheme

The indictment says Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit, 42, targeted thousands of companies worldwide over more than a year and a half. Victims allegedly included hospital systems in Missouri and California, a Rhode Island bank, a UK financial technology company, a Massachusetts mutual fund company and a Florida pet food company. The defendants are from Spain, the UK, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, according to the indictment.

The group often approached companies’ accounting departments by email, posing as a CEO and asking for help with a confidential financial transaction. They allegedly followed up with phone or video calls using AI to imitate the executive’s voice and, at times, image. Employees were then directed to contact a lawyer at a major law firm; the group was prepared to impersonate that attorney too, court documents say.

Soall mainly posed as UK attorneys. The US Attorney’s Office said he used a handwritten script titled “Lawyer Call” to appear convincing. The purported lawyer would instruct employees to wire large sums to accounts around the world. The money was then converted into cryptocurrency in an effort to conceal its origin and distributed to the defendants and others, according to court documents.

The defendants, whose nicknames included “Rocky Balboa,” “Superman Cash” and “Fat Boy,” were arrested between June and September. Hazan was convicted in a New York court in 2008 of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to the US Attorney’s Office. Lawyers for Soall and Sheetrit did not immediately respond to requests for comment; it was unclear whether Hazan had an attorney. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York did not immediately respond to a voicemail from The Associated Press.

FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. said the case illustrated how advanced technology could facilitate large-scale fraud. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, except aggravated identity theft, which carries a two-year maximum, prosecutors said.