Former Fideuram chairman Paolo Molesini was targeted in a large fraud scheme in February 2026 after receiving a WhatsApp message from someone posing as Intesa Sanpaolo chief executive Carlo Messina, followed by a phone call that used an AI-cloned version of a lawyer’s voice. The episode led to transfers of about €95 million. A Milan judge later found that although the bank recovered more than half of the funds, €39.5 million was still lost, and more than €36 million of that amount ultimately reached two Bitcoin wallets.
Corriere della Sera first reported the case on Sept. 25, and other major Italian outlets followed the same day. Fideuram, a private bank under Intesa Sanpaolo, manages about €450 billion in assets. Molesini resigned as chairman on March 12 for what was described as personal reasons. At that point, the fraud case had not been made public. He is not a target of the prosecutors’ investigation, and Fideuram has not filed suit against him.
How the scam was carried out
According to ANSA, which cited an order by Milan judge Sonia Mancini, Molesini received a WhatsApp message on Feb. 23 from an unknown number claiming to be Carlo Messina. The message said Intesa Sanpaolo was preparing to acquire an international bank and feared that a leak could prompt Italy’s securities regulator Consob to stop the deal, so the transaction would be routed through subsidiary Fideuram. It also said a lawyer would contact him shortly.
The order said Molesini did not find the request suspicious because a proposed acquisition of Generali had fallen apart months earlier after news of the deal leaked.
The caller who presented himself as the lawyer used the voice of Paolo Nastasi, managing partner of A&O Shearman’s Italy office. Molesini knew Nastasi personally, and the voice sounded authentic. Corriere della Sera said the scammers had cloned it with AI tools, while Nastasi himself had no knowledge of the operation. Il Post noted that people who often give interviews or speak at public events leave behind enough audio online to make voice cloning possible.
The fake lawyer then sent 11 documents, asking Molesini to sign a confidentiality agreement and attaching what appeared to be a special authorization signed by Carlo Messina. The final step was to provide bank account details for the transfers. The group also created an email domain on mailbox.org using Molesini’s name, and most of the document exchange went through that channel before the messages and files were deleted, according to Open.
On the same day, Fideuram’s head of funds and payments also received a call from someone impersonating the bank’s chief executive, warning that Molesini would soon issue an urgent and confidential transfer order. The group approached both the chairman and the payments side at once. By the time Molesini gave instructions, the staff handling the transfers had already been primed by the fake executive call. Molesini then instructed the chief financial officer to proceed. In total, 11 transfers worth more than €95 million were sent, mostly to China and Hong Kong, with some funds also routed to Portugal.
Funds recovered and frozen
Fideuram’s internal alert system was triggered soon after. Corriere della Sera reported that a Chinese bank intercepted and returned €40 million. Milan prosecutors Alfonso Serritiello and Barbara Benzi, working with Eurojust and Portuguese authorities, also froze €13 million at a Portuguese bank. Judge Sonia Mancini later ordered that amount seized.
Italian reports gave two figures for the unrecovered amount. Corriere della Sera’s first report on the morning of Sept. 25 said the loss was at least €36 million. ANSA, citing the judge’s order later that day, put the figure at €39.5 million and listed the amount intercepted in China as €42 million.
More than €36 million moved into Bitcoin wallets
The judge’s order said that of the €39.5 million still missing, more than €36 million passed through accounts in Malta, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, then through a Canadian remittance platform, before ending up in two Bitcoin wallets.
Corriere della Sera said prosecutors are now using cross-border judicial cooperation to trace the Bitcoin before the fraud ring can cash it out. Open reported that a 48-year-old Israeli man has been listed as a suspect on allegations of aggravated fraud and identity misuse, and that he is being investigated alongside unidentified accomplices. Investigators’ fund-flow analysis said nearly €4 million converted into crypto ended up in his possession.
Timeline and entities named in the case
Fideuram is part of Intesa Sanpaolo and manages roughly €450 billion in assets. The fraud took place in February 2026, with the key contact occurring on Feb. 23. Molesini resigned on March 12. On Sept. 25, Corriere della Sera first disclosed the case, while ANSA, Il Post, and Open added details on the court order, the voice-cloning method, and the suspect under investigation.