Three people face charges alleging they schemed to use artificial intelligence to defraud companies of nearly $130 million, federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced Thursday.
Jacob Soall, who called himself “Rocky Balboa,” Sharon Hazan and Guy Sheetrit were arrested in Europe and are awaiting extradition to the U.S. to face conspiracy, money laundering and other charges, prosecutors said.
Between July 2024 and February 2026, the trio allegedly used AI to impersonate the voices of corporate executives at numerous companies and attorneys at big law firms in order to trick employees into sending large payments to bank accounts all over the world, according to the newly unsealed indictment.
According to the indictment, they would tell the target company’s employees they needed assistance with a confidential financial transaction and would use AI to mimic the CEO’s voice or image in calls with the employee.
While pretending to be the CEO, they would direct the employee to get in touch with lawyers at large international law firms who they said were also working on the sham financial transaction, the indictment alleged. They would then impersonate those lawyers to further make the employee believe that the financial transaction was real, the indictment alleged.
Ultimately, the employee would be directed to wire a large sum of money to a particular bank account controlled by members of the conspiracy, costing the companies more than $129 million, according to prosecutors.
The scheme allegedly stole $4,829,580 from a hospital system headquartered in Missouri; $2,684,580 from a bank headquartered in Rhode Island; $2,968,497 from a hospital system headquartered in California; $11,578,474 from a financial technology company headquartered in the United Kingdom; $4,639,918 from a mutual fund company headquartered in Massachusetts; and $5,242,747 from a pet food company headquartered in Florida, among other victims, according to the indictment.
AI technology “offers tremendous potential. But the public should recognize that there are some who seek to use this emerging technology to pursue criminal goals,” U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said in a statement.
The three foreign nationals were arrested in recent months, according to the DOJ. Soall, 41, of Marbella, Spain, and the U.K., was arrested in Spain in June. Hazan, 54, of Israel, was arrested in Spain in August. Sheetrit, 42, of Israel and the United Arab Emirates, was arrested in the U.K. in September.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison.
Hazan was previously convicted in Manhattan federal court of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in 2008, according to the DOJ.
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