The AI boom has brought with it untold levels of fraud and graft. One of the largest schemes so far, concealed within the record-breaking valuations of the AI hype cycle, was iLearning Engines, a relatively young tech company which quickly scaled itself to a $1.5 billion market cap.
A scathing statement by the US Department of Justice alleges that iLearning, an “out-of-the-box AI platform that empowers customers to ‘productize’ their institutional knowledge,” has been faking “virtually all its customer relationships and revenues” since January 2019.
The DoJ named iLearning founder and CEO Puthugramam “Harish” Chidambaran and CFO Sayyed Farhan Ali “Farhan” Naqvi as co-conspirators in a “continuing financial crimes enterprise,” charging them with a bevy of charges related to…
This involves defrauding the state or using government systems to steal from individuals.
- Tax Identity Theft: A criminal uses your ID and income details to file a tax return in your name and claim a refund before you do.
- Grant/Benefit Fraud: Falsely claiming unemployment, disability, or social grants that the perpetrator is not entitled to.