Three foreign nationals have been arrested and charged with using artificial intelligence to impersonate corporate chief executives and attorneys in a scheme to steal more than $100m, according to the Guardian. An indictment newly unsealed by the US Department of Justice names the men as Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan and Guy Sheetrit.
Prosecutors said the men used AI to alter and impersonate the voices and images of executives and lawyers at various companies in order to convince employees to send large payments. The alleged fraud took place between 2024 and 2026. Soall and Hazan were arrested in Spain over the summer, while Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September.
The men allegedly posed as a corporate executive and told employees they needed help with sensitive financial transactions, then directed them to contact lawyers at a large international law firm. They would impersonate a lawyer at the firm and have the employees wire money. The Justice Department said the men ultimately stole more than $129m from companies around the world, including nearly $5m from a hospital system in Missouri and more than $11m from a UK technology company.
The money was directed to bank accounts in countries including the United States, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Austria, Slovakia and China, and then converted into cryptocurrency in an attempt to conceal its source, ownership and control, according to the department. The men have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money-laundering conspiracy and aggravated identity theft.