How did the gang that picked the pockets of gasoline customers make billions?

The Investigation Police Agency has just completed the file to propose prosecution of 16 defendants in the case of a gas station fraud, installing electronic chips to "pickpocket" customers.

Buy 500,000 VND, sell 25 million

According to the investigation results, the gas station at 436 Tran Khat Chan (Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi) belongs to Hanoi Fuel Oil Joint Stock Company, with Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh (born 1966) as store manager since July 1, 2011.

2 gas stations Yen Vien and Tran Khat Chan, where the fraudulent electronic chip installation was discovered

Around April 2014 (at this time the store had 11 employees including Ms. Hanh, and 2 shift leaders including Tran Thanh Trinh (born in 1980), Nguyen Manh Ha (born in 1983), and 8 employees. Tran Thanh Trinh and Nguyen Manh Ha raised the issue and Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh agreed to install fraudulent electronic chips into the pumps to "improve" the lives of the employees.

Trinh and Ha collected "tips" from the employees at the store, each person 7 million VND (Nguyen Ba Tung did not pay), a total of 70 million VND. With this amount of money, the subjects asked Ho Trong Tuan (born in 1973) - Head of the Market Department of Hanoi Petroleum and Fuel Joint Stock Company, to find someone to buy it for them and install an electronic chip to cheat; that person was Le Duc Phong (born in 1976) in group 12, Long Bien ward, Long Bien district, Hanoi.

Phong continued to ask Ngo Duc Toan (born 1979) in Thuong Cat ward, Bac Tu Liem district, Hanoi for help, and this person went to Hoa Binh market area, Pho Hue ward, Hai Ba Trung district, to buy an electronic chip with a pre-installed program to cheat on gasoline.

Toan bought the chip, which had the “ability” to cheat from 1% to 6% of the amount of gasoline sold to customers, for 500,000 VND, then sold it to Phong for 1.5 million VND, instructing Phong on how to install it. Phong continued to raise the price to Ho Trong Tuan to 7-8 million VND/chip. Before taking Phong to the gas station at 436 Tran Khat Chan to install it, Tuan told Phong to quote Trinh and Ha the price of buying and selling the electronic chip at 25 million VND/chip, in order to make a profit.

First, Phong installed two fraudulent chips at gas pumps number 2 and number 4. A few days later, the chip at gas pump number 4 malfunctioned. Trinh called Phong to come fix it and asked Phong to install another chip at gas pump number 5. Phong connected the chip to the on/off switch at the billing room inside the store.

Around June 2014, an electronic chip was broken; Nguyen Manh Ha asked Ngo Tuan Anh (born 1981) in Duc Giang ward, Long Bien district to repair it, ensuring that each chip could still "eat" 5% of the amount of gasoline sold to customers.

Seeing that the store using an on/off switch to start the chip would be easily detected, Tuan Anh suggested Trinh and Ha replace it with a remote control system for the 3 chips for 21 million VND. The control system was kept in a cash box, so that the gas station employees could take turns controlling it.

Tran Thanh Trinh

All store employees are aware of the electronic chip installation and are instructed on how to use it. Each shift, the employee who arrives first is responsible for using the remote control to turn on the chip and pump gasoline into a standard bottle to check the chip's operation. If there is a problem with the chip not working, the employee is responsible for notifying the shift leader and the store manager. When a customer notices a shortage of purchased gasoline, the employee will temporarily turn off the chip to avoid suspicion and detection.

On average, each sales shift, the shift leader and employee are divided from 400,000 to 600,000 VND/person (depending on sales). Store manager Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh is divided monthly, from 10-15 million VND/month. In addition, in the first 4 months of installing the chip, Trinh and Ha gave Ho Trong Tuan 10-15 million VND/month. After Tuan became the Head of the Market Department, Trinh and Ha stopped dividing money with Tuan.

Extending the cheating system

In May 2015, Tran Thanh Trinh was transferred to work as the store manager of Yen Vien gas station. Having become familiar with the “job”, in October 2015, Trinh asked Ngo Tuan Anh to come and “research” and install electronic chips to cheat at this new gas station.

On the night of October 21, Tuan Anh brought 3 chips to install in 3 gas pumps of Yen Vien gas station, and also improved the remote control system. Each electronic chip cheated 5% of the total amount of gas sold. The total amount Trinh paid to Tuan Anh was 21 million VND.

The subjects who supplied and installed fraudulent electronic chips were arrested along with the evidence.

To consume the fraudulent amount of gasoline, when Yen Vien gas station imported new gasoline, Trinh asked the driver of Hanoi Fuel Oil Joint Stock Company on the way to sell the fraudulent amount of gasoline to a gas station in Van Duong ward, Bac Ninh city, at a price lower than the market price of about 2,200 VND/liter. The remaining amount of gasoline on the vehicle was still imported to the Yen Vien store to meet the quantity according to the warehouse receipt.

On December 24, 2015, the fraudulent behavior at the two gas stations Tran Khat Chan and Yen Vien was discovered. The case was then transferred to the Criminal Police Department for further investigation. According to the confessions of the subjects, from the time of installing the fraudulent chip until the discovery, the amount of money was divided as follows: Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh received about 200 million VND; Tran Thanh Trinh received about 190 million VND (at both gas stations Tran Khat Chan and Yen Vien); Nguyen Manh Ha received about 150 million VND.

Authorities check and detect fraudulent behavior

The number of sales staff at the gas station 436 Tran Khat Chan, the person who received the most was about 150 million VND. Some new employees were given less, from 3-5 million VND/month. At the Yen Vien gas station alone, the total amount of fraud was about 120 million VND. However, because this store has not been administratively processed for deceiving customers, there are not enough elements to constitute the crime of "Deceiving customers". Therefore, the Investigation Police Agency has decided to separate the case file, sent a document to the Hanoi Market Management Department to request administrative handling and consider handling more than 2,000 liters of oil that the subjects had appropriated and still in the warehouse of the Yen Vien store.

Up to this point, the defendants have voluntarily paid a total of more than 1.6 billion VND in illegal profits from installing chips to cheat on petrol prices to remedy the consequences.

According to Capital Security