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An international cybercrime group allegedly stole €95 million ($100.8 million) from Fideuram, the private banking arm of Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo, by using artificial intelligence to impersonate senior executives and clone voices.
About €53 million was later recovered with help from international investigative agencies, while roughly €36 million remains missing.
The fraud, which began in February, targeted Paolo Molesini, then chairman of Fideuram. He reportedly received a message impersonating Intesa Sanpaolo’s chief executive, asking him to help arrange an urgent international transfer.
He was subsequently contacted by a person posing as a senior partner at a major law firm. Investigators say the fraudsters used AI-powered voice cloning to make the caller sound like the lawyer.
Believing the instructions were genuine, Molesini authorised the bank’s finance department to transfer large sums in stages to accounts in China and Hong Kong.
The bank detected the suspicious transactions and alerted international authorities. A joint investigation involving Italy, China and Portugal led to the recovery of part of the funds.
The remaining money has proved harder to trace after being moved through shell accounts, converted into cryptocurrency and allegedly laundered.
No bank employees have been accused. Prosecutors in Milan are investigating a non-European national in connection with the case.
The incident has highlighted growing concerns over the use of AI-powered impersonation and voice cloning in financial fraud, underscoring the need for stronger verification and cybersecurity controls in banks and other institutions.