AI Voice Cloning Drains €95 Million from Private Banking Arm of Italy's Largest Bank

Fideuram, the private banking division of Italy's largest lender Intesa Sanpaolo (which manages nearly €1 trillion in assets), was hit by a sophisticated AI deepfake fraud that drained €95 million ($108 million). Paolo Molesini, then-chairman of Fideuram, received a WhatsApp message ostensibly from Intesa Sanpaolo's chief executive Carlo Messina, urging immediate transfers through the treasury for an urgent and confidential overseas opportunity.

To satisfy internal verification, fraudsters followed up with a phone call. The voice on the line sounded unmistakably like Paolo Nastasi, managing partner of law firm A&O Shearman's Italian office, verbally confirming that the transfers were legitimate. Nastasi never made that call — criminals had used cheap AI voice cloning tools trained on his public interviews to mimic him. Combining a spoofed executive text with a cloned legal counsel call created the exact secondary confirmation required by standard anti-fraud procedures.

The funds were routed through accounts in mainland China and Hong Kong. After internal controls detected the breach, international coordination among Italian, Chinese, and Portuguese authorities recovered or froze roughly €59 million. However, the remaining €36 million was rapidly converted into untraceable cryptocurrency. Milan prosecutors have launched a computer fraud investigation against a foreign national outside Europe, while Intesa Sanpaolo disclosed it has logged thousands of AI impersonation attempts targeting its CEO since early 2026.

Sources: Reuters, Startup Fortune, Trending Topics.

BenPig thinks it is time to set up secret passwords even for phone calls.