On October 14, Hanoi Police’s Criminal Investigation Department announced it had officially launched a criminal case, indicted, and temporarily detained Nguyen Hoa Binh (born 1981, residing in Hanoi), Chairman of the Board of NextTech Group.

According to Hanoi Police, after monitoring online activities and collecting public feedback, authorities received numerous reports indicating signs of fraud and asset misappropriation linked to the cryptocurrency project AntEx, initiated by Nguyen Hoa Binh.

In response, the Director of Hanoi Police ordered the Economic Police Department to coordinate with relevant units and apply a range of investigative techniques to verify the allegations.

Based on evidence gathered, authorities initially determined that the AntEx project was developed by NextTech Group JSC, headquartered on the third floor of the VTC Online building, No. 18 Tam Trinh Street, Hanoi, with Nguyen Hoa Binh as Chairman.

Around May 2021, Binh and a group of individuals with expertise in cryptocurrency agreed to co-invest in developing the AntEx token (stored in Binance wallets) with the intention of selling it publicly to raise capital for two future projects: the VNDT token and VNDT e-wallet application.

However, investigators found that these projects were never completed as advertised.

Despite not meeting development milestones, Binh and other NextTech shareholders withdrew funds from the AntEx master wallet and transferred them into personal digital wallets.

They then converted the crypto assets into Vietnamese dong for personal gain.

Some of the funds were also funneled into companies within the NextTech ecosystem and used for unauthorized purposes, ultimately causing significant financial loss to investors.

Investigators confirmed that Binh and the founding shareholders siphoned funds from approximately 30,000 investor wallets and misappropriated a particularly large sum.

Police have since seized and frozen assets related to the case, totaling approximately 900 billion VND (around $36.8 million). This includes 597 taels of gold, foreign currencies, 18 land use right certificates, two automobiles, and numerous documents, accounting records, and electronic devices.

So far, only 3.45 billion VND (around $141,000) has been returned to mitigate damages.

Further investigations revealed that in 2022, Nguyen Hoa Binh directed the formation of NextLand Real Estate Business JSC.

He appointed Doan Van Tuan and Nguyen Ha Thuy as Director and Legal Representative, respectively.

Binh also instructed Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, Tran Thi Thuy Van, Nguyen Ha Thuy, and Doan Van Tuan to maintain two separate accounting systems to monitor the company’s financial activities.

He allegedly ordered staff to underreport profits and conceal revenue by manipulating sale prices on contracts to reflect lower-than-actual values.

This deceptive accounting practice caused substantial losses to the state budget.

Based on these findings, on October 10, 2025, Hanoi Police’s Criminal Investigation Department formally charged Nguyen Hoa Binh (Shark Binh) and nine accomplices with two criminal offenses:

Fraudulent appropriation of assets (Article 174, Penal Code)
Violations of accounting regulations causing serious consequences (Article 221, Penal Code)
Authorities are continuing to expand the investigation to uncover additional violations involving other companies within the NextTech ecosystem.

Tien Dung