NY Prosecutors Charge Trio in $129M AI Voice Fraud

Federal officials in New York have accused three foreign nationals of stealing over $129 million through a scheme that used artificial intelligence to impersonate corporate leaders.

The indictment filed in the Southern District of New York identifies Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit as the key figures in the conspiracy. The alleged operation ran from July 2024 through February 2026. Soall, a Spanish and British citizen, was caught in Spain in June. Hazan, an Israeli national, was arrested in Spain in August. Sheetrit, a citizen of Israel and the United Arab Emirates, was taken into custody in the United Kingdom in September.

The group targeted employees in accounting departments under the guise of handling confidential financial transactions. To build trust, the defendants used AI tools to replicate the voices and images of company CEOs and lawyers from major firms. These AI-generated personas instructed victims to contact specific legal representatives who were actually part of the fraud ring. The final step involved wiring large sums to bank accounts around the world. The group then converted the cash into cryptocurrency to hide the source and ownership of the money before splitting the proceeds.

Victims included a New York investment bank, hospital systems in Missouri and California, a Rhode Island bank, a UK financial technology firm, a Massachusetts mutual fund company, and a Florida pet food company. Soall, who used the aliases Rocky Balboa and Seba Clarke, impersonated U.K. attorneys using a script called Lawyer Call. Hazan, known by nicknames such as Superman Cash, was responsible for laundering the funds. Prosecutors noted that Hazan had a 2008 conviction for conspiracy to commit bank fraud and claimed to be a top figure in money laundering.

Each defendant faces charges including 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 potential prison sentence of 20 years.

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald spoke to the case, referring to artificial intelligence as SI, the term preferred by the White House for super intelligence. He warned the business community about the threat of SI-enabled crime and urged organizations to adopt protective measures against these tactics.