The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging three foreign nationals with using AI-generated voice and image deepfakes to impersonate corporate CEOs and attorneys, stealing more than $129 million from companies across the globe1,2,4. Prosecutors announced the charges on Thursday6,7.
Jacob Soall, 41, of Spain; Sharon Hazan, 54, of Israel; and Guy Sheetrit, 42, of Israel and the United Arab Emirates face counts of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering, carrying a combined maximum of 104 years in prison. Extradition requests for all three are pending. The case docket, which typically lists information on defense lawyers, was still listed as sealed in online court records as of Thursday evening. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York did not immediately respond to a voicemail left by the Associated Press.
How the scheme worked
The alleged fraud ran from July 2024 to February 2026 and targeted thousands of companies, according to the indictment filed in the Southern District of New York3. The trio and unnamed co-conspirators typically contacted accounting-department employees while posing as the target company's CEO, using AI to clone the executive's voice and, in some cases, deepfake their physical appearance during calls5. They told employees they needed help with a confidential financial transaction and directed them to contact attorneys at major international law firms, whom the defendants then also impersonated.
Employees were instructed to wire funds to bank accounts the conspirators controlled worldwide; the money was subsequently laundered by converting it into cryptocurrency.
Named victims and losses
Court documents identify specific victims: a U.K.-based financial technology company lost nearly $11.6 million; a Florida-based pet food company lost $5.2 million; a Missouri-based hospital system lost $4.8 million; a Massachusetts-based mutual fund company lost $4.6 million; a California-based hospital system lost nearly $3 million; a New York-based investment company lost $2.8 million; and a Rhode Island-based bank transferred nearly $2.7 million.
Arrests and prior record
Soall was arrested in Spain in June, Hazan was arrested in Spain in August, and Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September. Hazan was previously convicted in a New York court in 2008 of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The defendants used aliases including "Rocky Balboa," "Superman Cash," and "Fat Boy".
FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said the case "demonstrates how the use of advanced technology can be exploited to commit large-scale fraud" and that 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".
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said the three used artificial intelligence "to impersonate real people and deceive corporate executives into sending them and their co-conspirators approximately $129 million".
ANALYSIS The indictment adds a concrete, nine-figure criminal case to the pattern of AI-enabled attacks documented in recent weeks, including the cascade of AI-agent-driven cyberattacks reported in October[1].