3 foreign nationals allegedly used AI to mimic CEOs in $129M scheme, DOJ says

Three foreign nationals have been charged in connection with an alleged international fraud scheme that federal prosecutors say used AI technology to impersonate corporate executives and attorneys and steal more than $129 million.According to an indictment filed in the Southern District of New York, Jacob Soall, who went by “Rocky Balboa” and “Seba Clarke,” was arrested in Spain in June; Sharon Hazan, who used the nicknames “Superman Cash,” “Impossible Mission,” “Fat Boy” and “Ron,” was arrested in Spain in August; and Guy Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September.All three are accused of participating in a scheme that ran from July 2024 to February 2026 involving the use of artificial intelligence to impersonate the voices and images of corporate executives and attorneys at major law firms to trick employees of several companies into transferring large sums of money to bank accounts controlled by the group, according to a press release from the U.S. attorney’s office.The trio and their co-conspirators would tell these employees — typically in accounting departments — they needed help with a confidential financial transaction and would use AI technology to mimic the company CEO’s voice, according to the press release.Then, while pretending to be the CEO, they would tell employees to contact attorneys at large international law firms who they said were also working on the transactions, but in reality, those “attorneys” were also part of the scheme, prosecutors said.Finally, one of the people involved in the scheme would instruct the employee to wire large amounts of money to bank accounts set up worldwide, according to the press release.Once the employee wired the money, the group would convert the cash into cryptocurrency “in an attempt to conceal the source, ownership, and control of the stolen proceeds and distribute it amongst themselves and their co-conspirators,” prosecutors said.The U.S. attorney’s office alleges the scheme stole more than $129 million from companies worldwide, including an investment bank in New York, a hospital system in Missouri, a bank in Rhode Island, a hospital system in California, a financial technology company in the U.K., a mutual fund company in Massachusetts and a pet food company in Florida.Soall, from Spain and the U.K., impersonated U.K. attorneys and used a script titled “Lawyer Call” to make himself seem like a real attorney when speaking with victims, the release said.Hazan, from Israel, laundered the money from the scheme, according to the press release. Prosecutors allege that Hazan “boasted that he had been laundering money since 1994; that he had laundered over $400 million in just the past three years; and that, among professional money launderers, he was ‘number one all over the world.’”Hazan was also convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in the Southern District of New York in 2008.Sheetrit, from Israel and the United Arab Emirates, is also accused of laundering funds, the press release said.All three have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, money laundering conspiracy and two counts of money laundering. Each of the seven charges carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.“SI technology offers tremendous potential. But the public should recognize that there are some who seek to use this emerging technology to pursue criminal goals,” U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said in the release, using an abbreviation for super intelligence, the White House’s preferred term for artificial intelligence. “I encourage individuals and the business community to consider how to best protect themselves from the emerging threat of SI-enabled crime.”