AI Voice, Fake CEO Email, Then a Fake Lawyer on the Line: Three Charged in a $129 Million Business Fraud Case
Federal prosecutors in New York say three people used AI to mimic executives and attorneys while targeting company accounting teams worldwide, netting about $129 million. Here is how the scheme allegedly worked and what finance teams should change.
The email says the CEO needs a confidential wire. The follow-up call sounds like the CEO. The lawyer on the next call sounds real too. According to federal prosecutors, that three-act play—boosted with AI voice and sometimes video—helped a trio steal about $129 million from companies around the world.
The account below follows SecurityWeek’s reprint of Associated Press reporting on an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in New York and announced Thursday.
The case file
- Defendants named: Jacob Soall, 41; Sharon Hazan, 54; Guy Sheetrit, 42. Prosecutors say they have ties spanning Spain, the UK, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Nicknames cited in coverage include “Rocky Balboa,” “Superman Cash” and “Fat Boy.”
- Charges: Wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering, among others described by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Arrests were between June and September. Hazan had a 2008 New York conviction for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to the office.
- Scale: More than a year and a half of activity; thousands of companies targeted; about $129 million allegedly stolen.
- Example victim types named in court papers: hospital systems in Missouri and California, a Rhode Island bank, a UK fintech, a Massachusetts mutual fund firm and a Florida pet-food company.
How the alleged playbook worked
- An email purporting to come from the company’s CEO reached accounting staff and asked for help with a confidential financial transaction.
- A phone or video call followed in which the defendants allegedly used AI to mimic the CEO’s voice and sometimes image.
- Staff were told to contact an attorney at a major law firm—someone the group was also prepared to impersonate. Soall allegedly focused on UK attorney personas and kept a handwritten “Lawyer Call” script.
- The impersonated attorney instructed the employee to wire large payments to accounts around the world.
- Funds were converted to cryptocurrency to obscure the trail, then shared among the trio and others, according to the indictment.
FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. said the case shows how emerging technology can be weaponized for large-scale fraud. Maximum sentences cited for the charges are generally up to 20 years, with aggravated identity theft carrying a two-year term, according to the attorney’s office. As of the AP report, the online docket still showed sealing around defense-counsel details, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office had not immediately responded to AP’s request for comment beyond the charging materials.
What this means for your company
This is classic business-email compromise with a modern coat of paint: AI makes the voice and video step harder to dismiss by ear alone. Callbacks to a number you already have on file, dual approval for wires, a rule that “urgent CEO money moves” never start from email alone, and a habit of verifying lawyers through the firm’s published switchboard—not a number in the email—still stop most of these attempts. Train accounting and executive assistants specifically; they are the audience this playbook is written for.
Want help building wire-fraud controls, callback procedures and staff drills that assume AI voice cloning is already in the attacker’s kit? Reach out to Layer 7 Data Solutions to discuss how we’ve helped companies similar to yours.
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