Three men face federal charges in New York over an alleged scheme that used artificial intelligence to imitate corporate executives and law firm attorneys, persuading company employees to wire away roughly $129 million.
The defendants are Jacob Soall, 41, who has ties to Marbella, Spain, and to Britain; Sharon Hazan, 54, from Israel; and Guy Sheetrit, 42, linked to both Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Each faces seven counts brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, among them wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.
Authorities arrested the three between June and September, and prosecutors announced the indictment Thursday. The case docket remained sealed in online court records that evening.
Fake bosses, fake lawyers
According to court documents, the group often went after accounting departments. An employee would receive an email that appeared to come from the company's CEO, asking for help with a confidential financial deal.
A phone or video call would follow in which, the indictment says, the defendants used AI to copy the executive's voice and, in some cases, his or her face. Staff were then steered to a supposed attorney at a major law firm, another identity the group was prepared to fake, who instructed them to send large wire transfers.
Prosecutors say Soall mostly played British lawyers and relied on a handwritten script labeled Lawyer Call to sound convincing on the phone with victims.
I encourage individuals and the business community to consider how to best protect themselves from the emerging threat of [AI]-enabled crime.
Jamie McDonald, U.S. Attorney
Where the money went
The indictment says the men targeted thousands of companies worldwide over more than a year and a half. The largest losses listed include more than $11.5 million from a British financial technology firm and $5.2 million from a Florida pet food company.
Health care and finance were also hit. Prosecutors cite more than $4.8 million taken from a Missouri hospital system, more than $4.6 million from a Massachusetts mutual fund company, more than $2.9 million from a California hospital system and more than $2.6 million from a bank based in Rhode Island.
The payments landed in accounts controlled by conspirators in China, Austria, Slovakia, Singapore, Greece, Portugal, Spain, the UAE and the U.S., according to prosecutors. The funds were then turned into cryptocurrency to obscure their origin and divided among the defendants and others.
The trio used nicknames that include Rocky Balboa, Superman Cash and Fat Boy, court documents say. Hazan has a prior record: prosecutors say a New York court convicted him in 2008 for conspiring to commit bank fraud.
Each charge except aggravated identity theft carries a maximum of 20 years in prison if the men are convicted. The identity theft count carries two years.
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald urged businesses and individuals to guard against crime enabled by AI. FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said the case shows how advanced technology can be turned to fraud on a large scale.
