The victims of the multi-level marketing fraud group amounted to more than 60,000 people.

Many people were scammed out of 5 - 6 billion VND

According to Colonel Huy, the number of victims in the case is about 27 provinces and cities. The least number of people were scammed was 8.5 million VND, many were scammed up to 5 - 6 billion VND.

“These people, out of greed, mobilized money from friends and relatives to deposit into Lien Ket Viet Company or its branches to receive commissions. This morning, we just received a case of depositing 3 billion VND into Lien Ket Viet through branches in Hai Phong, Hanoi and Bac Ninh,” said Colonel Huy.

According to Colonel Huy, the number of victims so far is only an estimate, not the final number because the police are still calling on victims to come forward. Due to the large number of victims, the Investigation Police Agency - Ministry of Public Security has issued a decision to entrust the investigation to 27 investigation police agencies in the provinces and cities where Lien Ket Viet opened branches and representative offices.

“This delegation is to meet two requirements. First, it is to save victims the expense of traveling. If they have paid money to Lien Ket Viet in Hai Duong or Hai Phong, they only need to contact the local police to report, there is no need to go to Hanoi. Second, our entire unit has a few dozen people, we cannot receive and accept reports from 60,000 victims.”

Also according to C46, ​​the fraudulent activities of Lien Ket Viet Company occurred in a short period of time, about 1 year, but were very complicated in nature. The ringleaders in the case operated brazenly, recklessly, and used many sophisticated tricks, so the consequences were especially serious.

“The figure of 1,900 billion VND in damages is only preliminary, because this is the money that the victims paid into Lien Ket Viet through accounts opened at banks. There are still many people who paid in cash that have not yet been counted,” said Colonel Huy.

Referring to the amount of 1,900 billion VND that was mobilized but now only has more than 134 billion VND left, Colonel Huy said that Giang and his accomplices used about more than 100 billion VND to pay commissions to people participating in the system to attract others to participate, the rest was used for personal spending.

The records of the Investigation Police Agency show that Lien Ket Viet issued operating rules, reward programs, and drafted and signed 2 types of contracts: Multi-level sales contracts and distribution contracts to require participants to deposit money into the company.

"Multi-level marketing management is having problems"

“A multi-level marketing company defrauded more than 60,000 people in 27 provinces and cities, but the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Department of Industry and Trade did not know about it or take any measures to prevent it. Is there a problem with state management?”

Answering this question, Colonel Tran Quang Huy said: “The management of multi-level marketing enterprises is problematic, there is no specific responsibility. How much goods a multi-level marketing enterprise sells, how it declares it, the authorities will know, if it does not declare, the authorities will not know. Secondly, no one can control whether the products produced are as registered or not, no one knows how good or bad they are.”

The management of multi-level marketing enterprises is currently under the authority of the Competition Management Department - Ministry of Industry and Trade, which is also the unit that licensed Lien Ket Viet Company to operate at the end of 2014. A source said that before being prosecuted, Lien Ket Viet Company was administratively fined 500 million VND by the Competition Management Department for many violations in multi-level marketing activities.

According to the Investigation Police Agency, the leader of the case of defrauding 60,000 people at Lien Ket Viet Company is Le Xuan Giang (aka Le Xuan Ha, 45 years old, from Van Giang, Hung Yen). In 1991, Giang joined the army, then went to study at the Technical Economics and Vocational Training College under the Ministry of National Defense. In 2011, Giang was discharged with the rank of warrant officer and worked for many private companies. Notably, during the process of committing the fraud, Le Xuan Giang and his accomplices often wore military uniforms with the rank of lieutenant colonel or colonel. In fact, Giang lured a number of retired military officers to participate in sales activities to create trust and attract people to participate.