Thousands of customers "fell into the trap" of participating in a capital mobilization network with high interest rates, but in reality, they were just taking money from later people to pay earlier people.

On October 8, the Department of High-Tech Crime Prevention (C50), Ministry of Public Security, announced: Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong (38 years old, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Phuong Thai An Joint Stock Company, located in Quarter 3, Tan Hiep Ward, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai), Pham Thanh Toan (45 years old, both residing in Tan Hoa Ward, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai, General Director of the Company) and Ho Dinh Phu (24 years old, residing in Phu Hoi Commune, Duc Trong District, Lam Dong, Business Director) were detained for further investigation into the act of using computer networks, telecommunications networks, the internet or digital devices to commit acts of property appropriation.

The subjects were arrested.

Through verification, the subjects created the website hero8.org to call on customers from many provinces and cities across the country to contribute capital to the company, but in reality, they only used money from later payers to pay people before participating in the system.

This line was led by Phuong, while Toan and Phu played an effective role in assisting Phuong in defrauding thousands of customers with illegal high-interest capital mobilization.

Evidence of the case

Specifically, customers participating in the system must invest 10,160,000 VND to be given a code called ID. Of which, 2,160,000 VND is called pin money (a participation fee set by the system) and 8 million VND initial investment is called PH.

According to the referral model, every 5 days each individual participating in a code will receive 2,200,000 VND called GH. Each individual will receive a total of 18 installments. Therefore, according to calculations in a period of 5x18=90 days, if investing 10,160,000 VND, the customer will receive 2,200,000x18=39,600,000 VND, which means the estimated investment profit is about 130%.

This is a “huge” profit that customers receive in a short time. Based on the collected documents, on the evening of October 7, Department C50 coordinated with Dong Nai Provincial Police to arrest the above subjects.

Initially, the 3 subjects confessed: There were 14,637 ID codes of members who actually participated, out of 21,405 ID codes participating in the system.

Since the beginning of 2016, Phuong, Phu and Toan contributed capital to establish Phuong Thai An Joint Stock Company. After that, they hired someone to create the website hero8.org and designed the operation method according to the model that Phuong came up with, and at the same time called for everyone to participate. The company's website system is operated by Phu.

Every day, Phuong, Toan and Phu promote their company for business cooperation in many fields, calling on individuals to sign the company's contracts. The interest will be paid by the company through bank accounts.

The three used the embezzled money for personal expenses. Thousands of victims transferred more than 104 billion VND to Nguyen Thi Minh Phuong's account, 11 billion VND to Ho Dinh Phu's account and 15 billion VND to Pham Thanh Toan's account.

According to CAND