US prosecutors charge 3 people with using AI to fake executives’ voices to scam $129 million
On November 6, the Manhattan prosecutors’ office of the U.S. Department of Justice released an indictment accusing three people — Jacob Soall (41), Sharon Hazan (54), and Guy Sheetrit (42) — of using generative artificial intelligence to fake the voices and images of corporate CEOs and lawyers, luring employees at multiple companies into transferring funds in an amount of about $129 million. The three were arrested in Spain and the United Kingdom in June, August and September 2026, respectively, and the United States is currently seeking extradition.
According to the indictment, the scheme lasted from July 2024 to February 2026. The suspects contacted employees in company accounting departments, used AI to mimic the CEO’s voice — and in some cases images as well — claimed that help was needed to handle a confidential financial transaction, and then referred the employees to accomplices who claimed to be lawyers at a major international law firm. The so-called lawyer then provided transfer instructions, and the funds were subsequently converted into cryptocurrency to obscure their origin. The victims included a Missouri hospital system (about $4.8 million), a UK fintech company (about $11.6 million), a Rhode Island bank, a California hospital system, a Massachusetts mutual fund company and a Florida pet food company, among others.
The three are charged with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering, among other crimes. U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said the suspects abused superintelligence technology to impersonate real people and deceive companies. The case is currently in litigation, and the defendants are presumed innocent before conviction.
Original source:
Title: Three men charged in US with using AI to impersonate CEOs and steal millions Publisher: The Guardian (citing the U.S. Department of Justice) Date: November 6, 2026 URL: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/nov/06/ai-ceo-impersonation-theft Source type: Media report (citing the indictment and DOJ statement) Verification status: Full report read Supporting content: Three men charged with using AI to fake CEOs’ and lawyers’ voices/images and defraud about $129 million; scheme period 2024-2026; victims include multiple hospitals, banks and fintech companies; the three were arrested in Europe and extradition proceedings are underway; charges include wire fraud and money laundering.
ABAB AI Insight
This case turns AI voice and image forgery from scattered fraud into a systematic operation targeting corporate financial authorization processes. Rather than directly impersonating an external contact, the suspects first approached internal employees as CEOs, then introduced a lawyer role to provide transfer instructions, creating a double layer of confirmation in the decision chain. The indictment shows that they used handwritten scripts to guide how to prevent employees from verifying with colleagues, and in some calls they forged both voice and image at the same time.
After the funds were transferred, they were converted into cryptocurrency to cut off tracing paths. The specific victim losses listed in the indictment range from about $2.7 million to $11.6 million, covering hospitals, banks, mutual funds and consumer goods companies, showing that the targets were not limited to a single industry. The U.S. Attorney’s Office referred to the technology as superintelligence and said the suspects abused it to impersonate real people.
The three were arrested in Spain and the United Kingdom and are currently in extradition proceedings. The charges include wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering, with maximum sentences of decades. The indictment comes amid widespread discussion of AI voice-cloning technology, but it writes the specific methods, victim scope and fund flows into a formal indictment.
Overall, the case records criminal allegations that AI-generated content was used in corporate financial fraud, rather than an evaluation of any one technology itself. The final outcome depends on subsequent legal proceedings and evidence review.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
The U.S. prosecution has charged three people with using AI to fake the voices and images of CEOs and lawyers to defraud multiple companies of about $129 million.
The suspects first posed as CEOs to contact accounting employees, then introduced a lawyer role to provide transfer instructions, after which the funds were converted into cryptocurrency.
The three have been arrested in Europe, extradition proceedings are underway, and the charges include wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering.