AI Fraudsters Arrested for $129M Impersonation Scam

They ultimately stole more than $129m from companies all over the world, including in the US, according to the DoJ.

Scale and timeframe: more than $129 million taken, 2024–2026

The Department of Justice says the scheme unfolded between 2024 and 2026 and resulted in losses exceeding $129 million. The thefts crossed borders and corporate boundaries: the DoJ’s figure covers companies “all over the world,” and explicitly includes targets in the United States. The scale and multi-year duration of the alleged fraud place it among the larger incidences of corporate financial loss attributed to impersonation schemes.

Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit — arrests in Spain and the United Kingdom

According to a press release from the United States attorney’s office for the southern district of New York, three men — Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit — were arrested in connection with the scheme. Soall and Hazan were taken into custody in Spain “over the summer,” while Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September. The announcement links the arrests to the multi-year pattern of alleged fraud documented by the DoJ.

Method of the alleged scheme: AI-altered voices and images to impersonate executives and attorneys

The DoJ’s description centers on the use of artificial intelligence to alter and impersonate voices and images. With AI assistance, the defendants are accused of posing as corporate executives and instructing employees that they needed help with “sensitive financial transactions.” Employees were then directed to contact lawyers at a large international law firm. The defendants allegedly escalated the deception by impersonating those lawyers and instructing the employees to wire substantial amounts of money.

In short, the alleged operation combined two elements: a scripted social-engineering approach that targeted employees already in a position to authorize or execute transfers, and AI tools used to create convincing audiovisual impersonations of both executives and legal counsel.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the southern district of New York and the DoJ role

The facts reported here derive from a press release issued by the United States attorney’s office for the southern district of New York. That office—acting through the Department of Justice—publicly tied the three arrests to the alleged AI-enabled impersonation campaign and to the global $129 million loss figure. The cross-border detentions in Spain and the United Kingdom were presented in that same release as law-enforcement responses to the scheme.

What this means for corporate finance teams, large international law firms, and technologists and security teams

• Corporate finance teams and affected enterprises: The scheme’s design — executives asking employees to help with sensitive transactions and routing them to lawyers — highlights the particular vulnerability of employees authorized to move funds. Those teams will need to watch for attempts that mix executive-level urgency with law-firm contact instructions.
• Large international law firms and their clients: The alleged impersonation of firm lawyers shows how trusted intermediaries can be spoofed to add credibility to fraudulent payment requests. Firms named as the supposed points of contact in such schemes should expect heightened scrutiny from clients and counterparties during any high-value, time-sensitive wire instructions.
• Technologists and security teams: The case explicitly centers on AI-generated voice and image manipulation. Security professionals will be watching how AI tools are being deployed to clone or alter identities and will need to consider controls that validate identities through channels unaffected by such spoofing.

The arrest announcements, the reported $129 million in thefts, and the cross-border detentions together illustrate a stark point: artificial-intelligence tools can be combined with traditional social-engineering playbooks to produce large-scale, international fraud. The DoJ’s public statement ties the arrests to a campaign that worked by impersonating both executives and the lawyers used to legitimize wire transfers — a pairing that proved financially consequential in multiple jurisdictions between 2024 and 2026.

Link to the original story: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/11/three-people-arrested-for-ai-enhanced-impersonation-fraud.html