The ring leaders, Tran Thi Le Oanh, 41, Director of the Ocean Travel and Overseas Study Consulting Co., Ltd, headquartered in Phu Nhuan district, HCM City, and Nguyen Thi My Phuong, 30, from Tan Binh district, are facing charges of organizing illegal immigration services and using fake papers of agencies or organizations.

Tran Thi Le Oanh (left) and Nguyen Thi My Phuong   The people involved in the act of forging seals and papers and documents: (from left to right) Le Van Dai, Nguyen Van Tien and Vu Hong Tien

The remaining three members in this ring - Vu Hong Tien, 41, Nguyen Van Tien, 30 and Le Van Dai, 33, all from Tan Binh district - face charges of "forging the seal, documents of agencies and organizations”.

According to investigators, the ring made fake papers to bypass the Australian Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City. By using these fake papers, the ring got travel and study visas to Australia for 28 people.

However, 20 people left Vietnam to Australia through Tan Son Nhat international Airport and 8 people have not left the country yet. When the visa expired, 10 people exited Australia and returned to Vietnam and the remaining 10 are illegally residing in this country.

Oanh, as the Director of the Oceania Travel and Overseas Studying Consulting Co., Ltd., used fake papers to apply for visas to enter Australia for these people.

My Phuong provided Oanh with many types of fake documents such as: transaction statements of banks; certificate of temporary residence of the police of ward 10, district 10 and of the police of Binh Tri Dong ward, Binh Tan district; and copies of ID cards, household registration books of several communes and wards in Ho Chi Minh City.

Phuong hired Le Van Dai to forge bank account transaction statements, with the price of VND2 million/sheet. Dai received information from Phuong to make fake papers as required, then asked Nguyen Van Tien to make fake seals to authenticate those documents.

Investigation agency determined that Tien alone made hundreds of fake seals at an apartment in Binh Tan district. The police searched the houses of Le Van Dai and Nguyen Van Tien, seizing 234 fake seals of all kinds.

Oanh also hired Vu Hong Tien to make fake papers and documents. Tien bought 89 fake seals of businesses, universities, colleges, vocational training centers, hospitals ... to authenticate fake papers.

Oanh and Phuong posted ads on social networking sites to find “customers”. They collected service fees ranging from tens to hundreds of million dong per case.

In another case, the Investigation Security Agency, Ho Chi Minh City Police is expanding investigation of another ring that illegal sending Vietnamese people to the US. The investigation was launched after the US authorities detected two Vietnamese illegally entering this country and deported them to Vietnam.

Linh An