They Stole More Than $129 Million Using Artificial Intelligence Voice Imitations

U.S. federal prosecutors announced that three individuals have been charged with defrauding organizations in the U.S. and Europe of more than $129 million by using artificial intelligence to mimic the voices of company executives and lawyers.

According to the indictment prepared by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, suspects Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit targeted companies for approximately 18 months starting in July 2024. An accountant working at a regional hospital system in Missouri complied with a confidential and urgent wire transfer request, believing the voice on the phone belonged to the institution's executive, and $4.8 million was already gone by the time the incident was realized.

It was stated that the suspects obtained $11.6 million from a UK-based financial technology company, $5 million from a Florida pet food company, $3 million from a California hospital system, $4.7 million from a Massachusetts investment fund, and $2.7 million from a Rhode Island bank using similar methods. It was also reported that the suspects participated in video calls using deepfake videos of chief executives.

Arrested on various dates since June by authorities in the UK and Spain, 41-year-old Jacob Soall in Spain, 54-year-old Sharon Hazan of Israeli origin in Spain, and 42-year-old Guy Sheetrit were detained in the UK. It was reported that the suspects are awaiting extradition to the U.S. and will be tried on charges of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.

The prosecution noted that the suspects sent emails to targeted employees to have them sign non-disclosure agreements and then guided victims posing as lawyers using the real names of individuals from some of the world's largest law firms. It was stated that the stolen funds were transferred to accounts in Austria, China, Greece, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. before being converted into cryptocurrencies.