Two voices behind one payment request
An accounting employee who questioned an unusual payment could hear from the chief executive and consult what appeared to be outside counsel. In a federal indictment unsealed November 5 in Manhattan, prosecutors allege that a single group controlled both sides of that conversation. Three men face charges in a scheme that prosecutors say took approximately $129 million from companies worldwide.
The number to call came with the request
The indictment reproduces a message sent to an employee of a New York investment bank in October 2024. Purporting to come from the chief executive, it asked the employee to sign a nondisclosure agreement for a deal and supplied a telephone number for the supposed lawyer handling it. Looking up the lawyer by name could have turned up a real professional at a real firm. That search would tell the employee nothing about who answered the supplied number.
Where the money went
The government alleges that participants used artificial intelligence to mimic executives on calls, sometimes reproducing their appearance as well as their voice. Prosecutors list about $4.83 million taken from a Missouri hospital system and $2.97 million from a California hospital system. Their account also lists about $2.68 million from a Rhode Island bank. For hospital leaders, these allegations identify an exposure in treasury operations even when clinical systems are outside the case. For a bank, its own corporate payments can be the target, alongside the customer transactions its fraud teams ordinarily scrutinize.
What counted as confirmation
The alleged referral to outside counsel matters because it looked like a second opinion. Its value depended on who chose the contact details. A call placed through the firm’s established relationship with its lawyer would draw on information the requester did not supply. A call to the number in the deal paperwork returned the decision to the same people asking for the money. Confidentiality could be preserved in either case.
The case in New York
The U.S. attorney’s office identified the defendants as Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan and Guy Sheetrit. It said two were arrested in Spain and one in the United Kingdom, and that extradition requests were pending when it announced the indictment. The charges include wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. The allegations have yet to be proved, and the defendants are presumed innocent.
Sources & further reading
- Southern District of New York, superseding indictment S3 26 Cr. 168, especially paragraphs 1–9 (PDF) ↗
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, November 5 announcement ↗
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