Argentine investigators say identity theft ring moved 27 billion pesos through fake bank accounts and crypto

Argentina’s federal police detained several people, including a provincial judicial official, over a scheme that allegedly used biometric data from vulnerable victims to open bank accounts and virtual wallets, then push funds from a clandestine online casino and other illicit sources through layers of payment channels. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks, the interesting part is not the melodrama; it is the mix of identity fraud, mule-style accounts, virtual wallets, payment terminals, and crypto that turned the flow into something harder to unwind.

1. A Buenos Aires provincial judicial official identified as A.M. was arrested by the PFA’s Department of Fiscal Crimes. Investigators say she used her position at the Patronato de Liberados to approach vulnerable people and obtain their identity documents, photos, and an “eye scan” in exchange for 80,000 pesos.
2. According to the case sources cited by Infobae, the biometric capture was done under the cover of iris readings. Once the victims left, the identities were used to open bank accounts and virtual wallets that were formally in the victims’ names, while the phones, email addresses, devices, and access keys remained under criminal control.
3. A second phase of the operation allegedly fell to M.P. and other men, who handled the opening and administration of the accounts and linked them to devices controlled by the organization. The accounts received constant transfers and were emptied quickly, which is the usual tell that the account is a transit point, not a place where money plans to stay.
4. Investigators said the funds were then pushed through virtual wallets, payment terminals, supposed arbitrage transactions, and cryptoassets, increasing the distance from the money’s true origin. The police also linked the network to a clandestine online casino and other illegal activity.
5. One suspect, I.L.M., was arrested for his alleged role in the financial layer. Authorities said the movement tied to the scheme reached about 27 billion pesos in a few months. They also said I.L.M. is already linked to the Sur Finanzas case, involving a financial firm tied to the Argentine Football Association (AFA), where prosecutors allege money laundering, criminal association, and fraudulent administration between September 2020 and December 2025, with more than USD 108 m moved.

For high-risk payment operators, the pattern is familiar: identity capture, account opening under real names, device-level control, then rapid layering across wallets, terminals, and crypto. In practice, that is exactly the kind of flow where KYC on paper can look fine while transaction behavior tells a different story.