13 arrested in Hong Kong over HK$113 million ‘iAM Smart’ laundering crackdown

2026.03.20 10:20 Mobile phones seized during the operation are displayed. Photo: Handout Hong Kong police have arrested 13 people from a local syndicate on suspicion of laundering more than HK$113 million (US$14.4 million) using the government’s “iAM Smart” app. The force said on Friday that nine men and four women, aged between 38 and 75, allegedly used victims’ “iAM Smart” accounts to launder money through mule bank accounts. “The syndicate placed fake job advertisements in newspapers, claiming to be hiring cleaners,” said Wong Yuk-yan, acting superintendent from the New Territories North division. “They then accompanied these jobseekers to open ‘iAM Smart’ accounts at self-registration kiosks and used their accounts for payment and identity verification to collect their proceeds from scams.” The syndicate laundered a total of HK$113 million between June 2025 and this January through this method. Senior Inspector Fung Tat-yan, from the New Territories North regional technology and financial crime unit, said the force noticed a rise in fraud cases involving the use of savings and payment accounts as mule accounts towards the end of last year. Fung said the syndicate would open basic stored value payment accounts using different phone numbers and ask victims to log into the “iAM Smart” apps on mobile phones they had prepared to link these accounts using their identities. “The fraudsters told jobseekers that their ‘iAM Smart’ accounts were needed for work registration and future pay cheques,” he said. Senior Inspector Fung Tat-yan says fraud cases involving the use of savings and payment accounts as mule accounts have been on the rise. Photo: Handout They would mislead victims using different reasons, deceiving them into believing they needed to register for job certification and provide their fingerprints and photos, exploiting their personal information, Fung said. The syndicate would then use these accounts to launder money from scams and deposit fraudulent procee

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