Three indicted over alleged $129 million AI impersonation fraud | Magica
Three indicted in alleged $129 million AI executive and lawyer impersonation scheme
Editorial Team
••📖6 min read
U.S. prosecutors allege a global fraud combined AI impersonation, sham confidential deals and cryptocurrency laundering. A blocked bank transfer shows why convincing an employee and moving the money are separate hurdles.
Prosecutors allege the group targeted thousands of companies and stole at least approximately $129 million from at least July 2024 through at least February 2026.
The alleged scheme paired a fake executive’s authority with a fake lawyer’s instructions to keep transactions secret.
A bank stopped one authorized transfer; the charges remain unproven, and extradition requests are pending.
Three people have been indicted in New York over an alleged AI-assisted scheme that persuaded corporate employees to send millions of dollars for fictitious financial transactions. Federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York allege that synthetic voices and images worked alongside nondisclosure agreements, borrowed legal credentials and conspirator-controlled bank accounts.
The indictment, unsealed November 5, 2026, in the Southern District of New York, names Jacob Soall, 41, of Marbella, Spain, and the United Kingdom, as an alleged impersonator of UK attorneys. It identifies Sharon Hazan, 54, of Israel, and Guy Sheetrit, 42, of Israel and the United Arab Emirates, as alleged participants in laundering the proceeds. The prosecutors’ announcement says Hazan was previously convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in the Southern District of New York in 2008. The indictment also says Hazan boasted of laundering money since 1994 and more than $400 million over the preceding three years. That is an alleged boast about laundering generally, not a verified total or an additional loss attributed to this scheme. All three are presumed innocent of the new charges unless proven guilty.
According to the indictment, the group typically selected accounting employees with enough authority to authorize large wire transfers. Initial emails, sent through electronic-signature services, purported to come from the employee’s CEO. They introduced a confidential transaction, requested a signed nondisclosure agreement and supplied contact details for a supposed lawyer.
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Phone or video calls then reinforced the story. Prosecutors allege the conspirators used AI to mimic the CEO’s voice and sometimes image, directing the employee to follow the purported attorney’s instructions. The lawyers’ identities were generally those of real people working in European offices of major law firms, often among the world’s 50 largest, the filing says. The indictment does not name the impersonated executives, lawyers or firms.
The sham deal was often a corporate acquisition. Secrecy was part of the mechanism: employees were told not to discuss it with colleagues. Soall allegedly kept a handwritten “Lawyer Call” script invoking legal and regulatory confidentiality, shareholder concerns and insider trading to explain why other employees had not been brought in.
That sequence matters because the supposed lawyer was not an independent check on the supposed executive. Prosecutors allege both were controlled by the same conspiracy, which ultimately directed payments into its own accounts.
Six approximate losses alleged in the indictment. U.S. locations use postal abbreviations. These examples exclude the stopped New York wire and do not represent the full alleged total. Source: U.S. District Court indictment.
Multimillion-dollar losses, and one stopped wire
The indictment alleges activity from at least July 2024 through at least February 2026, targeting thousands of companies worldwide. Its examples span hospital systems, banking, financial technology, mutual funds and pet food. The alleged victims are identified by sector and headquarters location rather than company name.
The six alleged successful frauds itemized in the indictment total about $31.9 million, adding the six amounts in the filing. They are examples, not a complete accounting of the alleged $129 million total. The largest listed loss was at a UK financial technology company.
Alleged victim, by headquarters
Approximate date
Alleged loss, rounded
Missouri hospital system
November 2024
$4.83 million
Rhode Island bank
November 2024
$2.68 million
California hospital system
December 2024
$2.97 million
UK financial technology company
March 2025
$11.58 million
Massachusetts mutual fund company
April 2025
$4.64 million
Florida pet food company
June 2025
$5.24 million
The filing also describes a failed attempt against a major New York investment bank in October 2024. An employee was allegedly deceived into authorizing a transfer of approximately $2,849,000, but the bank’s back office prevented the wire from being sent. The indictment does not explain how that intervention worked.
Prosecutors allege stolen funds went to conspirator-controlled accounts in countries including the United States, Spain, the United Arab Emirates and China. They were then converted into cryptocurrency to conceal their source, ownership and control and distributed among participants. The public documents do not provide a total recovered or a net loss after recoveries.
AI adds credibility, but the tools remain unidentified
The allegations fit a threat described before these arrests. In a December 3, 2024 warning, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center said generative AI reduced the time and effort needed to deceive targets and could make fraud more believable. It described both voice cloning to elicit payments and generated videos used in real-time chats with supposed company executives or other authority figures. The warning predates the arrests and shows that these impersonation methods were already recognized risks; it supplies no evidence against these defendants.
The Justice Department announcement calls the technology “super intelligence,” while the indictment describes artificial intelligence used to mimic voices and images. Neither identifies a model, vendor, operating cost or technical evaluation. The released evidence therefore does not establish that the alleged fraud required a new class of AI capability, or quantify how much AI increased its success rate.
Soall was arrested in Spain on June 17, 2026; Hazan was arrested there on August 5; and Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom on September 7. Prosecutors said extradition requests for all three were pending when the charges were announced.
Each faces seven counts covering wire fraud and conspiracy, two aggravated identity theft charges, and money laundering and conspiracy. Prosecutors list maximum sentences of 20 years for each fraud or laundering count and two years for each aggravated identity theft count; any sentence would be determined by a judge. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of proceeds and property tied to the alleged offenses.
Lawyers for Soall and Sheetrit did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and it was unclear whether Hazan had an attorney, according to the report on the charges. The pending case must establish the defendants’ participation and the alleged money flows. Further evidence would also be needed to show which AI systems were used, how often the impersonations failed and how much of the money can be returned.
For businesses assessing the immediate risk, the stopped wire leaves a specific unanswered question: which back-office check prevented payment after an employee had been deceived? The filing does not say. The FBI’s earlier guidance advises verifying a caller’s identity by hanging up, independently researching the organization’s contact details and calling it directly.
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