The police have busted a 14-member gang operating in Hanoi and Ninh Binh Province that allegedly laundered VND1 trillion (US$39 million) worth of money using AI to bypass biometric security measures at banks.
13 individuals, led by 46-year-old Pham Hong Chuyen from Hanoi, are under investigation for organizing illegal gambling, according to a Ninh Binh police release Thursday.
Seven of them are also being probed for money laundering.
This is the first recorded case in Vietnam in which AI was used to create fake face scans for money laundering purposes, the police said.
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Seven individuals among 14 investigated for operating an illegal gambling and money laundering ring in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Ninh Binh Police |
Chuyen told the police that he was hired by a Taiwanese to help launder money collected from a gambling website which has been operating for years.
The website, which targets players from Vietnam, opened over one million player accounts in the first four months of this year and collected VND1 trillion from them for gambling.
To legitimize the cash, Chuyen hired locals to open bank accounts under their names.
They were required to submit a 30-second video of their face, which he later used to create an AI version.
In Vietnam, a bank transaction worth VND10 million or more requires the sender to scan his or her face with a smartphone camera.
The AI face scans Chuyen created enabled his group to operate many bank accounts without the owners’ knowledge and use them to transfer illegal money to various other accounts to conceal source.
The police have frozen 1,000 bank accounts suspected of being involved in the case.
Chuyen’s ring has allegedly laundered over VND1 trillion betwen September last year and April this year.
