Record trial, depositing real money to get virtual money with 600 victims

Under the guise of a travel booking service broker, thousands of people have deposited money on the Diamond Holiday Company's internet system to receive rewards of 1,000 - 15,000 USD... in virtual money.

On the morning of April 25, the People's Court of Tay Ninh province held a first-instance trial of the case of "using the internet to commit property appropriation" against two defendants: Lam Van Lieu (53 years old, residing in Tra Vong commune, Tan Bien district) and Huynh Thi Ranh (58 years old, residing in Ward 4, Tay Ninh city). The case had a record number of victims with more than 600 people.

Scene of the trial of two defendants for internet fraud. Photo: Giang Phuong

Due to the number of victims present at the trial on the morning of April 25, there was no more room in the courtroom. Victims had to sit in the hallways of the courtroom to watch. By early afternoon, the presiding judge was still verifying the victims present.

According to the indictment, from September 2010 to February 2012, Lam Phuc Hung and Nguyen Thi Ai Dan established Diamond Holiday Trading Joint Stock Company (headquartered in Hanoi) with Dan as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The company was later changed to Diamond Holiday Southeast Asia Company Limited with Hung as General Director.

Dan and Hung's company opened branches across the country, operating under the form of Diamond Holiday Travel Company (abbreviated as DHT Company, headquartered in the US) which is an e-commerce business with the product being a travel booking service package (4 days 3 nights for 2 people at 3-5 star hotels or resorts in Vietnam and other countries around the world) belonging to the partner system of DHT Company, the total fee is 375 USD.

When a person participates in the system, the fee must be guaranteed and converted into Vietnamese currency to be deposited into the bank account of Dan's Diamond Holiday Company and converted into virtual currency on the internet.

New participant will refer and sponsor 2 following participants.

The following people will be introduced in a doubling order, when there are enough 15 participants, the person in the first position (called the gold table leader) will be awarded 1,000 USD in virtual money in the electronic wallet on the internet and will be transferred to the red table. When the red table has 64 people, the leader will be released from the table and awarded 15,000 USD (including 10,000 USD in virtual money and a travel check worth 5,000 USD)

If they want to get real money, members must sell the virtual money to other members in the system or new members. On February 25, 2012, Hung and Dan were arrested and prosecuted in Hanoi.

In Tay Ninh, the two defendants Lieu and Ranh mobilized many people to buy product packages. On September 26, 2014, Lieu and Ranh were temporarily detained.

The indictment alleges that from October 2012 to May 2012, a total of 544 people paid Lieu more than VND6.6 billion to buy DHT service packages. For Ranh alone, from September 27, 2010 to March 30, 2012, 627 people paid Ranh more than VND10 billion to buy travel service packages.

According to Thanh Nien