Fraudsters using artificial intelligence to impersonate senior executives stole €95 million ($108 million) from Fideuram, the private banking arm of Italy’s largest lender, Intesa Sanpaolo, according to two people familiar with the matter.
More than half of the money has since been recovered, but about €36 million remains missing, the sources said.
The scheme began in February when Paolo Molesini, who was then chairman of Fideuram, received a WhatsApp message that appeared to have been sent by Intesa Sanpaolo Chief Executive Carlo Messina.
The message requested urgent assistance with an overseas transaction.
The fraudsters later followed up with a phone call that appeared to come from a senior partner at a major law firm who confirmed the request. The callers used AI technology to replicate the lawyer’s voice, according to the sources.
Believing the instructions were genuine, Molesini directed Fideuram’s finance department to make a series of transfers to foreign accounts, mainly in China and Hong Kong.
Fideuram later detected irregularities in the transactions and alerted banks and authorities in several countries.
About €53 million was recovered through cooperation involving authorities in China, Portugal and Italy, according to the sources. The remaining funds were moved through a network of overseas accounts and converted into cryptocurrencies, making them difficult to trace.
Intesa Sanpaolo and Fideuram declined to comment.
Neither Molesini nor other Fideuram executives are under investigation, the sources said. Milan prosecutors have, however, placed a foreign national living outside Europe under investigation on suspicion of computer fraud, according to one of the sources.
Molesini resigned as Fideuram chairman in March, citing personal reasons. The bank did not provide further details at the time.
The incident highlights the growing use of AI-generated voices and other synthetic media in financial fraud, allowing criminals to impersonate senior executives and create seemingly credible instructions for employees.
In another case last year, fraudsters used an AI-generated voice to impersonate an Italian government minister and persuaded businessman Massimo Moratti to transfer nearly €1 million to an overseas account. The money was later recovered.
The Fideuram case is among the largest reported financial frauds involving AI-based impersonation, illustrating how voice-cloning technology can be combined with social engineering to bypass traditional verification procedures.
