Key Takeaways
- US prosecutors in New York charged Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit with using AI to impersonate company CEOs and lawyers in a scheme that stole about $129 million, the Justice Department said on November 5, 2026.
- Victims of the $129 million AI impersonation scheme included a UK financial technology company that lost almost $11.6 million, a Florida pet food company that lost $5.2 million, and a Missouri hospital system that lost $4.8 million, CyberScoop reported.
- Soall, Hazan, and Sheetrit were arrested in Spain and the United Kingdom between June and September 2026 and face seven counts, including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.
- The FBI advises verifying a caller who claims to represent an organization by hanging up, looking up that organization's contact details, and calling it directly, and asks fraud victims to report to its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
What happened
Three men have been indicted in New York on charges of using AI to impersonate corporate executives and attorneys to steal about $129 million, prosecutors said on Thursday, November 5, 2026, the Associated Press reported. The indictment was filed in the Southern District of New York, according to NBC News.
The defendants are Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit, 42. Soall went by "Rocky Balboa" and "Seba Clarke," and Hazan used nicknames including "Superman Cash" and "Fat Boy," NBC News reported, citing the indictment.
According to court records, the group targeted thousands of victims between July 2024 and February 2026, CyberScoop reported.
Who was targeted
The Associated Press reported that victims included 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, and a pet food company in Florida. NBC News also listed an investment bank in New York.
CyberScoop reported these losses:
| Victim | Loss |
|---|---|
| UK financial technology company | almost $11.6 million |
| Florida pet food company | $5.2 million |
| Missouri hospital system | $4.8 million |
| Massachusetts mutual fund company | $4.6 million |
| California hospital system | nearly $3 million |
| New York investment company | $2.8 million |
| Rhode Island bank | nearly $2.7 million |
How the scheme worked
The group often targeted employees in accounting departments. An email that claimed to come from the CEO asked for help with a confidential financial transaction, the Associated Press and NBC News reported. Prosecutors said the group picked employees with enough authority to approve large wire transfers, according to CyberScoop.
The defendants then arranged phone or video calls in which they used AI to copy the CEO's voice, and sometimes the CEO's image, the Associated Press reported. AI imitations of a real person like these are called deepfakes. The fake CEO then told the employee to contact an attorney at a major law firm, and members of the group played that attorney too. CyberScoop reported that the group impersonated attorneys at some of the world's 50 largest law firms.
The fake attorney told the employee to wire large payments to bank accounts around the world. According to CyberScoop, those accounts were in countries including the United States, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and China. The group then converted the money into cryptocurrency to hide where it came from, prosecutors said.
Soall mainly posed as UK attorneys and used a handwritten script titled "Lawyer Call," the US Attorney's Office said, according to the Associated Press. Prosecutors say Hazan and Sheetrit laundered the money. Hazan boasted that he had laundered more than $400 million in the past three years, NBC News reported. Hazan was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in New York in 2008, according to the US Attorney's Office.
Arrests, charges, and response
Soall was arrested in Spain on June 17, Hazan in Spain on August 5, and Sheetrit in the United Kingdom on September 7, CyberScoop reported. NBC News gave the same countries and months.
All three are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, money laundering conspiracy, and two counts of money laundering, according to NBC News and CyberScoop. The seven counts carry a maximum combined sentence of 104 years in prison, CyberScoop reported.
US Attorney Jamie McDonald said "there are some who seek to use this emerging technology to pursue criminal goals." He called the technology "super intelligence," which NBC News described as the White House's preferred term for AI. James C. Barnacle Jr., who leads the FBI's New York field office, said the case shows "how the use of advanced technology can be exploited to commit large scale fraud."
Sheetrit's lawyers told CyberScoop that he "has no connection to this matter and has had no involvement in it whatsoever" and maintains his complete innocence. Lawyers for Soall did not immediately respond to the Associated Press, and it was not clear whether Hazan had a lawyer.
What organizations should do
McDonald encouraged "individuals and the business community to consider how to best protect themselves from the emerging threat of SI-enabled crime," using SI as short for super intelligence, NBC News reported.
In a December 2024 public service announcement, the FBI warned that criminals create AI videos for live video chats with people posing as company executives. The FBI advises verifying a caller by hanging up, looking up the organization's contact details, and calling it directly. It also advises against sending money to anyone met only online or over the phone. The FBI asks victims to report fraud to its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and, if possible, to include payment details such as dates, amounts, and the receiving bank.