Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged three men with using AI-generated voices and images to impersonate corporate executives and law-firm attorneys, tricking company employees into wiring money in a fraud scheme that news reports put at about $129 million. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment against Jacob Soall, 41, of Marbella, Spain, and the United Kingdom; Sharon Hazan, 54, of Israel; and Guy Sheetrit, 42, of Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
Each man faces the same seven counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, money laundering conspiracy and two counts of money laundering. The wire fraud and money laundering counts each carry a maximum of 20 years in prison, and each aggravated identity theft count carries a maximum of two years, according to the Justice Department.
The Justice Department describes a two-step playbook. An employee would receive a phone or video call from someone posing as the company's CEO, with the executive's voice and sometimes image generated by what the department's release calls "super intelligence" technology. The employee was then referred to an impersonated attorney at a large international law firm, who directed a wire transfer. Court documents cited in news coverage say the approach sometimes opened with an email purporting to come from the CEO.
“But the public should recognize that there are some who seek to use this emerging technology to pursue criminal goals”— Jamie McDonald, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Key facts
- 01Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit, 42, face seven federal counts each in the Southern District of New York.
- 02Prosecutors say AI-cloned voices and images of CEOs and law-firm attorneys were used to get employees to wire funds.
- 03Named victims include a Missouri hospital system, a Rhode Island bank and a U.K. fintech that allegedly lost $11.58 million.
- 04Wire fraud and money laundering counts carry up to 20 years each; aggravated identity theft carries up to two years per count.
- 05All three were arrested in Spain or the U.K. between June 17 and September 7, 2026; extradition requests are pending.
The Justice Department listed several victims and the amounts each allegedly lost: $4.83 million from a hospital system headquartered in Missouri, $2.68 million from a bank in Rhode Island, $2.97 million from a hospital system in California, $11.58 million from a financial technology company in the United Kingdom, $4.64 million from a mutual fund company in Massachusetts and $5.24 million from a pet food company in Florida. The department said the list was not exhaustive and put the overall haul at more than $100 million.
Stolen funds were wired to accounts in the United States, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the UAE, Singapore, Austria, Slovakia and China, according to prosecutors. The money was then converted into cryptocurrency and distributed among the participants.
Prosecutors assign each defendant a role. Soall allegedly posed as U.K. lawyers on the calls, working from a handwritten script titled "Lawyer Call." Hazan and Sheetrit allegedly handled the laundering. The Justice Department says Hazan boasted that he had laundered more than $400 million in the past three years, and notes that he was convicted in the same federal court of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in 2008.
The indictment also lists aliases. Soall allegedly went by "Rocky Balboa" and "Seba Clarke," while Hazan's included "Superman Cash" and "Fat Boy." Prosecutors say the scheme ran between 2024 and 2026.
All three are already in custody overseas. Soall was arrested in Spain on June 17, Hazan in Spain on August 5 and Sheetrit in the United Kingdom on September 7, and U.S. extradition requests for all three are pending. The FBI's New York Field Office led the investigation with help from Spain's Policía Nacional and the U.K. National Crime Agency.
Lawyers for Soall and Sheetrit did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and it was not clear whether Hazan had an attorney. The charges are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The case lands the same week the Justice Department announced a Super Intelligence Task Force, and the department's release on the indictment uses that same terminology throughout. U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald paired the warning with an endorsement of the underlying technology, saying in the release that "SI technology offers tremendous potential."
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