Three individuals have been charged in the United States for orchestrating a $129 million fraud scheme that utilized artificial intelligence to impersonate corporate executives and attorneys, based on information published by IT Pro.
The defendants, Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit, 42, allegedly used AI to mimic the voices and images of high-level officials to deceive employees into transferring funds to illicit accounts. The operation typically targeted accounting staff by posing as CEOs requesting assistance with confidential financial transactions. To enhance credibility, the fraudsters impersonated lawyers from international firms to validate the requests. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that the trio successfully stole $129 million from various entities, including hospitals, banks and financial firms across the United States and the United Kingdom. Hazan and Sheetrit were primarily responsible for laundering the illicit proceeds. Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. This case highlights the growing threat of deepfake technology in corporate environments, with research from Gartner indicating that 40% of chief information security officers have encountered social engineering attempts involving deepfake voice calls. Consequently, many organizations are now revising verification protocols and investing in identity abuse detection tools to mitigate these sophisticated security risks.
Source: IT Pro
