A Taiwanese man and his six Vietnamese accomplices at a Hanoi-based company were prosecuted on Monday for swindling hundreds of local people through an illegal gold trading floor.

 Hsu Ming Jung (left) and Doan Thi  Luyen

The group including Hsu Ming Jung, the Taiwanese general director of Khai Thai Investment Consulting Company and his six accomplices were arrested in October 2014 after they were found setting up an illegal gold trading floor to cheat investors.

According to police report, Khai Thai CEO, Hsu Ming Jung, 42; Doan Thi Luyen, 30, managing director of the company; Nguyen Manh Linh, 30, a director of the company; and Trinh Hoang Binh, 42, the company’s chief accountant, were charged with fraud pursuant to Article 139 of the Penal Code.

Two other Vietnamese people, the managing directors of the company’s branches at the Plaschem Building, Dinh Thi Hong Vinh, and the Lotte Building in Hanoi, Tang Hai Nam, were also charged with the same offence.

Investigations showed that between December 2012 and September 2014, the Taiwanese CEO and his accomplices illegally set up a gold trading floor to raise over VND280 billion (USD12.36 million) at high-interest rates from 717 investors, and then appropriated most of the funds, police said.

The company had paid a total of VND17.5 billion (USD772,626) in interest to the investors and appropriated over VND264 billion (USD11.65 million).

During a search of the company’s offices in October 2014, police seized VND57 billion (nearly USD2.69 million) and a large amount of foreign currency.

Jung and his accomplices used sophisticated methods fraudulently take their funds via a fake investment trust, police said.

The company also offered lofty salaries and attractive bonuses to its employees attracting investment.

Dtinews