The United States Department of Justice has unsealed an indictment charging three men with orchestrating a sophisticated, years-long fraud scheme that utilized artificial intelligence to impersonate corporate executives and legal professionals. Authorities allege that Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit successfully defrauded various businesses of at least $129 million between July 2024 and February 2026. The accused individuals are currently facing seven counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft, which collectively carry a maximum potential sentence of 104 years in prison.
According to the indictment, the operation targeted thousands of victims by specifically identifying accounting staff members who possessed the authority to execute large wire transfers. The process typically began with an email sent via an e-signature platform. In these communications, the perpetrators posed as a company CEO, claiming they were involved in a confidential financial transaction that required the employee to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Once the victim engaged, the attackers used AI-generated deepfakes to impersonate both the CEO and attorneys from major global law firms, creating a false sense of legitimacy around the requested financial transfers.
The scale of the financial impact was broad, affecting a variety of sectors across the United States. Confirmed victims include a United Kingdom-based fintech firm that lost $11.6 million, a Florida pet food company that lost $5.2 million, and a Missouri hospital system that lost $4.8 million. Other significant losses were reported by a Massachusetts mutual fund, a California hospital system, a New York investment firm, and a Rhode Island bank, with individual losses ranging from $2.7 million to $4.6 million.
Investigators allege that the illicit funds were routed through bank accounts controlled by co-conspirators in several countries, including Spain, Portugal, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Austria, Slovakia, China, and the United States. Once the money reached these accounts, it was reportedly converted into cryptocurrency and distributed among the participants.
The three defendants were apprehended in different jurisdictions over the course of several months. Jacob Soall, 41, was arrested in Spain on June 17, 2026, and is accused of primarily impersonating U.K.-based attorneys while utilizing prepared scripts to deceive targets. Sharon Hazan, 54, was taken into custody in Spain on August 5, 2026. Prosecutors noted that Hazan has a prior 2008 conviction for bank fraud in the Southern District of New York and allegedly claimed to have laundered over $400 million in the previous three years. Guy Sheetrit, 42, was arrested in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2026, and is accused of playing a central role in laundering the proceeds of the scheme.
Federal authorities have highlighted this case as a prime example of how emerging technologies are being weaponized to facilitate large-scale criminal activity. The investigation underscores a growing trend where sophisticated AI tools are used to bypass traditional security measures by mimicking the voices and appearances of trusted authority figures.
While the Department of Justice has provided these details through the unsealed indictment, the case remains in its early legal stages. The charges represent the government's formal allegations against the trio, and the defendants are entitled to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York continue to investigate the broader network of co-conspirators involved in the operation.
