Arrested the man who 'magically' transformed nearly 4,000 fake cars into brand new ones
Within 2 years, Bui Van Tan sold 3,911 cars, illegally profiting tens of billions of dong.
On December 15, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department initiated a case, prosecuted and detained Bui Van Tan (born in 1983, residing in Xuan Thoi Thuong commune, Hoc Mon district) and 8 accomplices to investigate the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property.
Through the work of registering and issuing license plates for motorbikes and mopeds under the functions of the district-level police, Ho Chi Minh City Police together with the Working Group of Department C08 - Ministry of Public Security discovered that some records of first-time vehicle registration had many unusual signs.
Through physical inspection, it was discovered that there were signs of grinding and re-punching the frame and engine numbers, so the vehicle was temporarily detained for appraisal.
Police determined that since 2021, Bui Van Tan has colluded with Le Van Toi to buy motorbikes of unknown origin and without registration papers from pawnshops in Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring provinces or from classifieds on social networks...
To legalize vehicles of unknown origin, Tan purchased motorbike factory quality inspection certificates at prices ranging from 500,000 VND to 1 million VND per certificate.
Tan then took the motorbikes of unknown origin to Phat Dat repair shop (in Binh Chanh district) owned by Nguyen Huu Oai and Nguyen Huu Nhu.
Tan hired someone to grind and re-chisel the new frame and engine numbers to match the frame and engine numbers on the factory quality inspection certificate of the previously purchased vehicle for a fee of 1 million VND/vehicle.
In order to maximize the illegal profits, Bui Van Tan continued to direct the technical staff of Tan Tien 1 and Tan Tien 2 stores owned by Tan to refurbish the above motorbikes into "used" and new ones to sell to customers with a commitment to ensure vehicle registration for customers.
In addition, Tan also directed Nguyen Trung Thong to contact a broker to provide motorbike registration services.
Initial determination is that from 2021 to 2023, Bui Van Tan sold 3,911 motorbikes to customers in many provinces and cities across the country. In 2023 alone, he sold 1,549 motorbikes, illegally profiting about 15 billion VND.
Currently, the police continue to expand the investigation, clarify signs of customer deception, harboring and consuming assets obtained by others through criminal acts and other violations in the entire vehicle trading activities; the role, nature and level of violations of related subjects to strictly handle according to the provisions of law.
At the same time, clarify the origin of more than 10,000 factory certificates and trace the origin of motorbikes sold by this group to the market to detect and thoroughly handle violations.
