Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have unsealed an indictment charging three foreign nationals in an alleged AI-powered impersonation scheme that took companies for more than $129 million by cloning the voices and images of executives and lawyers.

The indictment was unsealed on November 6, 2026 and filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit. The charges include wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering, money laundering conspiracy, and aggravated identity theft. Under federal law, the aggravated identity theft count carries a mandatory two-year prison term that must run consecutively to any sentence on the other counts.

How the Alleged Scheme Worked

Prosecutors say the operation ran from approximately July 2024 to February 2026. During that window, the defendants allegedly used AI tools to replicate the voices and images of corporate executives and attorneys at major international law firms.

In the scenario described by prosecutors, an accountant at a regional hospital system in Missouri picked up the phone and heard a voice that sounded exactly like the organization's chief executive, requesting an urgent and confidential wire transfer. According to federal prosecutors, it was not the CEO, but part of the impersonation operation.

Targets would first receive an email or phone call from someone posing as their company's CEO, asking for help with a sensitive deal. A supposed lawyer would then follow up with wire instructions, giving the request a veneer of legal legitimacy. The targets were typically accounting staff, the employees with actual authority to move money. Some of those employees allegedly authorized large transfers into accounts controlled by the accused.

The two-step pattern — an urgent executive request followed by a lawyer's wire instructions — mirrors the executive-impersonation frauds long tracked by law enforcement as business email compromise. What distinguishes the alleged operation is its use of AI-generated voices and images: voice-cloning tools that can produce a convincing replica from short audio samples have become widely available, eroding the long-standing assumption that a familiar voice on the phone confirms who is on the line.

The indictment describes thousands of targeted companies. The victims that did lose money were a strikingly varied group:

• A Missouri hospital system, which lost approximately $4.83 million
  A UK fintech company, which lost approximately $11.58 million
• A Florida pet food company, which lost approximately $5.24 million
• A Rhode Island bank
• A California hospital
• A Massachusetts mutual fund

Per-victim losses ranged from approximately $2 million to over $11 million.

Arrests Across Europe, Extradition Pending

All three men were arrested in Europe over the course of 2026. Soall, 41, who has ties to Spain and the UK, was arrested on June 17, 2026. Hazan, 54, of Israel, was arrested on August 5, 2026. Sheetrit, 42, with ties to Israel and the UAE, was arrested on September 7, 2026.

Extradition proceedings to bring all three to the United States are underway. Each defendant faces up to 20 years per major count if convicted. Hazan has a prior bank fraud conviction from 2008.

As with any indictment, these are allegations. None of the three has been convicted on the current charges.

The Crypto Thread

Money laundering sits at the center of the case, and digital assets reportedly played a role. Some of the stolen funds were allegedly converted into crypto as part of the laundering process. Court documents do not specify which assets were used or how much money moved through them — details that, along with the outcomes of the extradition proceedings, are the points to watch as the case moves through court.

Source: CryptoBriefing