Cloned CEO Voices, Fake Lawyers and $129 Million: Three Charged in Manhattan

Here is what happened

On November 5, 2026, United States Attorney Jamie McDonald of the Southern District of New York and James C. Barnacle, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced the unsealing of an indictment against:

• Jacob Soall, 41, of Marbella, Spain, and the United Kingdom, also known as "Seba Clarke" and "Rocky Balboa"
• Sharon Hazan, 54, of Israel, who goes by several aliases, including "Superman Cash"
• Guy Sheetrit, 42, of Israel and the United Arab Emirates

Soall was arrested in Spain on June 17, 2026. Hazan was arrested in Spain on August 5, 2026. Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2026. Extradition requests for all three are pending.

Each faces seven counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, money laundering conspiracy and two counts of money laundering. The wire fraud and money laundering counts each carry a maximum of 20 years. Aggravated identity theft carries 2 years.

Charges are allegations; every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.

How the calls allegedly worked

According to the indictment, between 2024 and 2026 the defendants and their co-conspirators followed a consistent pattern:

1. They targeted employees at victim companies and pretended to be the company's Chief Executive Officer.
2. They used super intelligence (SI) to mimic the CEO's voice and/or image in calls with the employee, asking for help with a confidential financial transaction.
3. The fake CEO pointed the employee to lawyers at large international law firms supposedly working on the deal.
4. Conspirators then impersonated those lawyers too.
5. A fake lawyer directed the employee to wire a large sum to a bank account the conspirators controlled.

Soall allegedly focused on impersonating attorneys from the United Kingdom. Prosecutors say he kept a handwritten script titled "Lawyer Call" to sound like a real attorney, including language meant to keep victim employees from discussing the calls with coworkers.

Hazan and Sheetrit allegedly laundered the proceeds. The money went to accounts in the United States, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Austria, Slovakia and China, and was then converted into cryptocurrency. According to the release, Hazan boasted that he had laundered over $400 million in the past three years. He was previously convicted in the Southern District of New York of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in 2008.

Who lost money

The indictment alleges more than $129 million in total losses. The release lists six examples:

• $4,829,580 from a hospital system headquartered in Missouri
• $2,684,580 from a bank headquartered in Rhode Island
• $2,968,497 from a hospital system headquartered in California
• $11,578,474 from a financial technology company headquartered in the United Kingdom
• $4,639,918 from a mutual fund company headquartered in Massachusetts
• $5,242,747 from a pet food company headquartered in Florida

Why it matters

Most impersonation call cases we cover involve consumers and a caller pretending to be a government agency or a bank. This one targets businesses, and the alleged tool is a synthetic voice of someone the employee knows.

That matters for anyone who relies on the phone. A familiar voice is no longer proof of identity. The same technology that powers legitimate AI voice products can be turned against the people on the other end of the line, and regulators and prosecutors are paying attention to how it is used.

U.S. Attorney McDonald encouraged "individuals and the business community to consider how to best protect themselves from the emerging threat of SI-enabled crime."

What this means for you

1. Do not treat a voice or video call as authorization for a wire. Require a second channel and a second approver.
2. Call back on a number you already have on file, not one supplied during the call.
3. Train finance staff that requests for secrecy about a payment are a warning sign.
4. If you deploy AI voice in your own outbound calling, document consent and identify the caller clearly. Do not imitate real people.

Victims or anyone with information can submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov. The U.S. Attorney's Office release is attached: U.S. Attorney's Office release on the AI impersonation indictment.

Verify before you wire. That is the whole lesson.