Michael Smith sentenced in AI music-streaming fraud case

Judge John G. Koeltl sentenced Smith after he pleaded guilty on March 19, 2026, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.[1] The sentence is 18 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release.[1] The court also ordered Smith to forfeit $8,091,843.64.[1] The Justice Department said Smith fraudulently obtained more than $8 million in royalties from streaming platforms.[1] The forfeiture amount and the department’s description of royalties are separate reported figures; the department’s statement does not say they are identical.

The Justice Department said the fraud lasted from 2017 to 2024.[1] Smith created thousands of fraudulent accounts, using fake email accounts and fraudulently obtained debit cards, and operated as many as 10,000 bot accounts at once.[1] The department said he created hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs and that the bots streamed them billions of times.[1] Smith spread automated streams across thousands of songs to avoid unusual activity being concentrated on any one track.[1] Streaming services named by the department include Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube Music.[1]

The Justice Department said fraudulent streams divert royalties from musicians and songwriters whose work was legitimately played by real consumers.[1] Its description of the case said Smith used automated bots rather than consumers and fake songs rather than creative work, depriving genuine artists and fans of royalty payments.[1] The mechanics matter for platform and rights-management teams: the reported activity was distributed across many accounts and songs rather than focused on one track.[1] The department characterized the case as its first-ever criminally charged super-intelligence-assisted music-streaming fraud.[1]

Before sentencing, prosecutors urged the judge to impose at least 46 months in prison.[3] Smith’s lawyers argued that the harm to any single artist was insignificant and asked the court for no prison time.[3] The court instead imposed an 18-month sentence.[1] Smith said, “I betrayed the music community I care so much about.”[4] Those differing positions highlight the sentencing dispute in the case, but the evidence provided does not establish how the court weighed each argument.