Italian bank boss wired €95m after AI-cloned lawyer voice call

Paolo Molesini, chairman of Fideuram, ordered transfers worth roughly €95 million in February 2026 after receiving a WhatsApp message that appeared to come from Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Carlo Messina. The message urged him to route the funds through Fideuram for an urgent foreign deal the parent bank supposedly could not handle.

A follow-up phone call sealed the deception. The caller posed as Paolo Nastasi, managing partner at law firm A&O Shearman, whose voice had been cloned with AI tools. Supporting emails and documents with a forged signature arrived soon after.

Recovery efforts clawed back €53–55 million: a Chinese bank returned €40–42 million and Portuguese authorities froze another €13 million. At least €36 million, however, moved through Malta, Luxembourg and the Netherlands before being converted into bitcoin.

Molesini resigned on 12 March citing personal reasons. Milan prosecutors are investigating; one named suspect is a 48-year-old Israeli national living outside Europe.

Based on information from https://cryptonews.net