The significance lies less in the novelty of the confidence trick than in its economics.
Three people accused of using artificial intelligence to impersonate corporate executives and lawyers in order to steal about US$129 million have been indicted on charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, prosecutors said on Thursday. According to the South China Morning Post, the indictment was filed in a US District Court in New York.
The defendants are named as Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit, 42. The report says they targeted thousands of companies across the world over more than a year and a half. The victims cited in court documents include 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. The defendants are described as coming from Spain, the UK, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and were also charged with money laundering.
The alleged method was patient and layered. According to the indictment, the group often approached companies' accounting departments with an email purporting to come from the chief executive, asking for help with a confidential financial transaction. They would then arrange a phone or video call in which AI was used to mimic the voice and sometimes the image of the executive. The employee would be told to contact a lawyer at a major law firm, a role the group was also ready to fill. Soall is said to have mainly impersonated lawyers from the UK and to have kept a handwritten script titled “Lawyer Call” to make himself seem like a real attorney. The supposed lawyer would then direct the employee to wire large payments to bank accounts around the world, according to court documents. The funds were converted into cryptocurrency to conceal their origin and then distributed to the trio and others involved, the report says.
The three were arrested between June and September. The US Attorney's Office said Hazan was convicted in a New York court in 2008 of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. The report notes nicknames including “Rocky Balboa”, “Superman Cash” and “Fat Boy”. FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jnr said the case showed how advanced technology can be used to commit large-scale fraud, and that the bureau was committed to adapting its capabilities as criminals weaponise emerging technologies. If convicted, each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, except aggravated identity theft, which carries two years.
The significance lies less in the novelty of the confidence trick than in its economics. Business email compromise has long relied on plausibility and urgency; voice and video simulation lower the cost of manufacturing that plausibility at scale. The indictment alleges thousands of targets, which suggests a volume model rather than a handcrafted con. The crypto conversion step also points to the difficulty of tracing funds once they cross borders and asset classes.
What is not yet known is how the defendants will plead, whether the alleged AI tools have been identified, and how much of the US$129 million has been recovered. The charges are allegations and have not been proven. The case nonetheless puts a marker down: the procedural controls that companies rely on, such as callbacks and approval chains, are being tested by tools that can imitate the people those controls are designed to verify.
