US Charges Three Over $129m Deepfake Fraud Routed via Greece
by Bill Giannopoulos · Greek City TimesNEW YORK, November 2026 — US prosecutors on Thursday unsealed charges against three men over an alleged $129 million deepfake fraud that used artificial intelligence to impersonate company chiefs and lawyers, with some money routed through Greece.
The indictment in the Southern District of New York names Jacob Soall, 41, Sharon Hazan, 54, and Guy Sheetrit, 42. According to the indictment, the scheme ran from July 2024 to February 2026.
Greece appears in the deepfake fraud case only as one of nine countries where stolen money reached bank accounts. However, the published details do not point to any Greek company or person taking part, or to victims in Greece.
The charges also do not name the banks or say how much money passed through them.
Read more: Hackers Steal $6.3 Billion in World’s Biggest Cryptocurrency Heist
“As alleged, Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit abused groundbreaking super intelligence technology to impersonate real people and deceive corporate executives into sending them and their co-conspirators approximately $129 million,” US Attorney Jamie McDonald said.
How the deepfake fraud worked
Each attempt usually began with a message that seemed to come from a company’s chief executive, prosecutors said. It asked a staff member with power over large transfers to help with a confidential deal.
Next, the employee had to call a lawyer at a major international law firm. In reality, that lawyer also belonged to the network and gave the payment orders, according to the indictment.
On phone or video calls, the group used AI to copy the voice and sometimes the face of the real boss. As a result, the deepfake fraud looked like a genuine company request.
Investigators also found a handwritten script titled “Lawyer Call”, which Soall allegedly used when he posed as a British lawyer. It told him to say that other staff had not yet signed confidentiality agreements.
Victims included a UK financial technology company that lost $11.58 million, prosecutors said. A Florida pet food company lost $5.24 million, while a Missouri hospital system lost about $4.83 million.
In addition, a California hospital system lost almost $3 million and a Rhode Island bank lost $2.68 million. Still, a New York investment firm stopped a $2.85 million payment at the last moment.
Money trail and arrests
After each transfer, the deepfake fraud network moved the money to accounts in the US, Spain, Portugal, Greece and five other countries, according to the indictment. Then the group turned it into cryptocurrency to hide its origin.
Prosecutors said Hazan, from Israel, played a central role in laundering the money. He allegedly boasted that he had laundered more than $400 million in three years and was “number one all over the world”.
In 2008, a New York court convicted Hazan of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Sheetrit, an Israeli who lives in the United Arab Emirates, also faces money laundering charges, NBC News reported.
Authorities arrested Soall in Spain in June and Hazan in Spain in August. Since Sheetrit’s arrest in the UK in September, the US has requested the extradition of all three men.
Each man faces seven federal counts over the deepfake fraud, including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. Some charges carry up to 20 years in prison.
At the same time, the FBI is looking for other possible victims of the deepfake fraud. It takes reports through its Internet Crime Complaint Center.
In September, Greek City Times reported that Greek police broke up an AI voice cloning gang behind a €1 million scam.
Source: ERT News
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