Three Charged With Using AI Voice and Image Mimicry to Impersonate CEOs and Lawyers in Alleged $129 Million Fraud

Three people have been indicted in New York on charges that they used artificial intelligence to impersonate corporate executives and attorneys and steal about $129 million from companies around the world. Prosecutors announced the case Thursday, Nov. 5.

The defendants are Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit, 42. The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, charges them with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. These are allegations. None of the three has been convicted.

How the alleged scheme worked

According to the indictment, the group ran a layered con aimed mostly at accounting departments. An employee would get an email that appeared to come from the company's CEO asking for help with a confidential financial transaction.

Then came a phone or video call. Prosecutors say the defendants used AI to mimic the CEO's voice and, at times, the CEO's image.

The CEO impersonator would then tell the employee to contact an attorney at a major law firm who was supposedly working on the deal. That attorney was also fake, according to court documents.

The fake attorney would instruct the employee to wire large sums to bank accounts set up around the world. The money was then converted into cryptocurrency to hide its source and split among the three defendants and co-conspirators, prosecutors say.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Soall mostly played the part of U.K. attorneys. Prosecutors say he used a handwritten script titled "Lawyer Call" to sound like a real lawyer while "defrauding victims."

Who was hit

Prosecutors say the scheme ran from July 2024 to February 2026 and targeted thousands of companies worldwide. The victims named in court documents and the U.S. attorney's press release include:

• an investment bank in New York
• hospital systems in Missouri and California
• a bank in Rhode Island
• a financial technology company in the United Kingdom
• a mutual fund company in Massachusetts
• a pet food company in Florida

The indictment does not, in the accounts released so far, break down how much each victim lost. The $129 million figure is the prosecutors' total.

The defendants

The three come from Spain, the U.K., Israel and the United Arab Emirates, according to the indictment. NBC News reported that Soall, who is tied to both Spain and the U.K., also went by "Rocky Balboa" and "Seba Clarke." Hazan's nicknames include "Superman Cash," "Impossible Mission," "Fat Boy" and "Ron."

Hazan is not new to the system. The U.S. Attorney's Office says she was convicted in a New York court in 2008 of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

Soall was arrested in Spain in June. Hazan was arrested in Spain in August. Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September. Extradition requests for all three are pending.

A charge on this scale does not mean the case is airtight, and the defense has not been heard. Lawyers for Soall and Sheetrit did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. It was not clear whether Hazan has an attorney. The case docket, which normally lists defense counsel, was still sealed in online court records as of Thursday evening.

What the FBI says

James C. Barnacle Jr., the FBI's assistant director in charge of the New York field office, said the case shows how advanced technology can be used to commit fraud at scale.

"As criminals continue to weaponize emerging technologies, the FBI remains committed to rapidly adapting our capabilities to identify, investigate, and disrupt those who seek to harm New Yorkers and businesses operating in our communities," he said in a statement.

What the charges carry

If convicted, each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, with the exception of aggravated identity theft, which has its own penalty.

The scheme as described did not depend on breaking into any computer system. Each step was a person on a phone or screen making another person comfortable: first the boss, then the outside lawyer, then the wire instruction. Prosecutors say that worked on employees at hospitals, banks and a mutual fund firm for more than a year and a half.

The next move is not in New York. Extradition proceedings in Spain and the United Kingdom will determine whether Soall, Hazan and Sheetrit ever stand trial in Manhattan, and neither the prosecutors nor the defendants have said when those hearings will happen.