NEW YORK (AP) — Three people accused of using artificial intelligence to pose as business executives and lawyers to steal about $129 million have been charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, prosecutors announced Thursday.
For more than a year and a half, Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit, 42, targeted thousands of companies around the world as part of their AI scheme, according to the indictment filed in a U.S. District Court in New York.
Their victims included hospital systems in Missouri and California, a bank in Rhode Island, a financial technology company in the United Kingdom, a mutual fund company in Massachusetts and a pet food company in Florida, according to court documents.
The defendants, from Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, were also charged with money laundering, according to the indictment.
Lawyers for Soall and Sheetrit did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. It was unclear whether Hazan had an attorney. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York did not immediately respond to a voicemail left by The Associated Press.
The three were arrested between June and September. In 2008, Hazan was convicted in a New York court of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The trio, whose nicknames include “Rocky Balboa,” “Superman Cash” and “Fat Boy,” often targeted corporate accounting departments. They would send an email claiming to be from the CEO and ask for help with a confidential financial transaction, according to court documents.
They also coordinated a phone or video call in which the defendants used AI to imitate the voice and sometimes image of the CEO, according to the indictment.
The defendants would then ask them to contact an attorney at a major law firm, which the group was also willing to impersonate, according to court documents.
Soall primarily posed as lawyers in the United Kingdom and had a “handwritten script titled ‘Call for Lawyer’ that he used to pose as a real lawyer when speaking with and defrauding victims,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The impersonated attorney would direct the employee to wire large payments to bank accounts around the world, according to court documents. The funds were then converted to cryptocurrency in an attempt to conceal their provenance and then distributed to the trio and others involved, according to court documents.
FBI Deputy Director James C. Barnacle, Jr. said this case shows how advanced technology can be used to commit large-scale fraud.
“As criminals continue to weaponize emerging technologies, the FBI remains committed to quickly adapting its capabilities to identify, investigate and disrupt those who seek to harm New Yorkers and businesses operating in our communities,” he said in a statement.
If convicted, each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, except for aggravated identity theft, which is two years, according to the district attorney’s office.
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