Fraudsters using artificial intelligence stole €95 million ($108 million) from Fideuram, the private banking arm of Italy’s largest lender Intesa Sanpaolo, in February 2026 by impersonating senior executives and a lawyer, according to sources familiar with the matter and reporting by Corriere della Sera and Reuters.
Roughly €53 million has been recovered through international cooperation involving authorities in China, Portugal and Italy. About €36 million remains missing after the funds moved through overseas accounts and were converted into cryptocurrency.
The scheme began when Paolo Molesini, then chairman of Fideuram, received a WhatsApp message that appeared to come from Carlo Messina, chief executive of parent company Intesa Sanpaolo. The message sought urgent help with an overseas transaction.
A follow-up phone call used AI technology to replicate the voice of Paolo Nastasi, managing partner of the Italian offices of law firm A&O Shearman, confirming the instruction. Nastasi had no involvement in the matter and was unaware of the impersonation. Fake documents, including a confidentiality agreement and a power of attorney bearing what appeared to be Messina’s signature, accompanied the requests.
Believing the communications genuine, Molesini directed Fideuram’s finance department to arrange a series of transfers mainly to accounts in China and Hong Kong, totaling about €95 million.
Fideuram quickly detected irregularities and alerted banks and authorities in several countries. A Chinese bank identified and returned about €40 million. Milan prosecutors, working with Portuguese counterparts through Eurojust, secured the seizure of a further €13 million in Portugal before it could be moved further.
Intesa Sanpaolo and Fideuram declined to comment. Neither Molesini nor any other Fideuram executives are under investigation, sources said. Molesini resigned as chairman in March 2026, citing personal reasons.
Milan prosecutors Alfonso Serritiello and Barbara Benzi are investigating a 48-year-old Israeli national living outside Europe on suspicion of computer fraud in connection with the case. Court documents link him to roughly €4 million in cryptocurrency proceeds. The man has a prior U.S. conviction related to similar international fraud schemes.
Paolo Molesini was born in Feltre, Italy, in 1957. He graduated with honors in business administration from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and earned an MBA from INSEAD. He held senior roles in the Intesa Sanpaolo group for more than two decades, serving as chief executive of Fideuram from 2015 to 2020 before becoming chairman. He also previously chaired Assoreti and continues to lead the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice.
Carlo Messina, born in Rome in 1962, has served as chief executive of Intesa Sanpaolo since 2013. Paolo Nastasi is a corporate and private-equity lawyer who joined the predecessor firm of A&O Shearman in 2007 and was appointed managing partner of the firm’s Italian offices in 2025.
The remaining funds continue to be traced through international letters rogatory as the investigation proceeds.
