To date, Ho Chi Minh City Police have uncovered a transnational criminal organization involved in fraud, money laundering, and cross-border money transfers, with transactions totaling nearly $20 million USD and over 2 trillion VND.
The police have indicted 15 suspects on charges of "Money Laundering" and "Illegal Cross-Border Money Transfers." Key leaders and fraud ringleaders remain at large, hiding abroad.
The investigation began in early April when Ho Chi Minh City police received information from the Ukrainian Embassy about a Ukrainian company being defrauded of $314,000 USD, transferred into a company in Vietnam.
Through investigations, authorities identified a transnational crime ring with significant links in Vietnam and began making arrests.
The scheme involved hacking into corporate emails in various countries to intercept information about international transactions and business contracts.
The perpetrators then created fake emails that closely resembled the companies’ actual emails and communicated with business partners, asking them to transfer funds to designated accounts in Vietnam.
Foreign accomplices instructed their Vietnamese associates, including couples like Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy and Eneh Davidson Caleb (from Nigeria) and Le Thi Tham and Okoye Christian Ikechukwu (also Nigerian), to establish hundreds of shell companies with similar names to legitimate firms, opening both USD and VND accounts.
When funds were transferred to these accounts, the ring converted the money into VND and dispersed it through multiple accounts to obscure the trail.
Three women played pivotal roles, collectively establishing over 300 shell companies to receive fraudulently obtained funds. The women included Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy (112 companies), Le Thi Tham (53 companies), and Nguyen Thi Huong (116 companies). They claimed to have acted under the direction of their foreign husbands, with transactions totaling over $3 million USD.
The group laundered stolen funds by funneling them to foreign ringleaders through concealed operations. Two significant businesses involved were Kingfood Bird’s Nest on Le Dai Hanh Street, managed by Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy and Pham Van Nhan, and Duc Long Gold Shop on Cach Mang Thang Tam Street, managed by Do Viet Dai and Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.
These businesses hired people to handle currency transactions and record bookkeeping to facilitate money transfers abroad, primarily to Cambodia and back. They agreed on a transaction fee of 1.5 million VND per 2.5 billion VND transaction with Cambodian counterparts.
The investigation revealed that from August 2023 to early April 2024, this operation transferred a total of nearly $11 million USD and over 2 trillion VND from Cambodia to Vietnam, and approximately $8.2 million USD and over 35 billion VND from Vietnam to Cambodia.
During the bust, police searched Duc Long Gold Shop, Kingfood Bird’s Nest, and other related locations, seizing over $1 million USD, various foreign currencies, more than 9 billion VND, over 200 company seals, business registration certificates, documents, and equipment.
The Ho Chi Minh City Police Investigation Department continues to expand the investigation.
Dam De
Vietnamnet.vn
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