The 'huge' scale of the money laundering ring worth tens of thousands of billions of dong
On the afternoon of November 8, the Office of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department of Investigation announced that it had prosecuted and executed an arrest warrant to temporarily detain two subjects: Nguyen Thi Kim Trang (born in 1970; residing in District 3) and Le Van Hoa (born in 1977; residing in Tan Binh District), employees of Duc Long Gold Shop (Ward 5, Tan Binh District) for the act of "Illegally transporting currency across the border".
This is the result of the investigation expansion into the cases of "Fraudulent appropriation of property", "Money laundering" and "Illegal transportation of currency across borders" that have received public attention.
Previously, on April 15, 2024, the Office of the City Police Investigation Agency prosecuted Do Viet Dai (born in 1971; residing in Ward 5, Tan Binh District); Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (born in 1977, residing in Dak Lak), owner of Duc Long gold shop, for the act of: Organizing and operating illegal money transfer activities from Cambodia to Vietnam and vice versa.
The subjects contacted, cooperated, acted as "links", locations for delivery, receipt, and transfer of money from Vietnam to foreign countries (mainly to Cambodia) and vice versa to gain illegal profits.
Hiding under the guise of a gold shop, Ngan and Dai rented location 772 Cach Mang Thang 8, Ward 5, Tan Binh District as a money transfer and receipt point and committed illegal acts; at the same time, hired Nguyen Thi Kim Trang and Le Van Hoa to carry out the foreign currency transfer and receipt and record keeping.
The subjects agreed with the subjects in Cambodia that the conversion benefit was 1.5 million VND/2.5 billion VND of transaction money. From August 2023 to April 5, 2024, the subjects transferred money from Cambodia to Vietnam with a total of nearly 11 million USD, 2,048 billion VND; transferred from Vietnam to Cambodia about 8.2 million USD, more than 35 billion VND.
The incident originated from information sent by the Ukrainian Embassy in Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh City Police about a company based in Ukraine being robbed of 314 thousand USD after transferring money to a company based in Vietnam.
Immediately upon receiving the information, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department directed the Office of the Investigation Police Agency to preside over and coordinate with professional units of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department to establish a special project to fight.
The results have uncovered an organized, transnational crime ring involved in fraud, money laundering, and illegal cross-border currency transportation by hacking into company emails of countries that are discussing international economic transactions and contracts; creating fake emails with names similar (only one character different) to the email of the victim's partner company to contact and give objective reasons for changing the transaction account.
At the same time, the subjects abroad directed the subjects in Vietnam, including the couple Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy and Eneh Division Cable, the couple Le Thi Tham and Okoye Christian Ikechukwu, and related subjects to establish many "ghost" companies with names similar to the names of the partner companies to open foreign currency accounts in USD and VND. Then, they provided the account numbers of the "ghost" companies so that the victims would be mistaken and transfer money.
Upon receiving money into the USD foreign currency account, the subjects in the name of the company's legal entity quickly complete the procedure to convert it to VND and transfer it to the VND account, then transfer it to the accounts of other individuals in Vietnam.
The investigation agency determined that the group of subjects had established more than 300 “ghost” companies to open company bank accounts to serve the above criminal activities; in which, Nguyen Thi Huong was the name of 116 companies, Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy was the name of 112 companies, Le Thi Tham was the name of 53 companies; at the same time, it was determined that the accounts of the subjects had a history of transactions related to criminal activities with a total amount of more than 3 million USD.
This group withdrew cash and brought it to the Kingfood Bird's Nest facility on Le Dai Hanh Street, Ward 11, District 11, owned by Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy (born in 1983, residing in Tan Phu District) and Pham Van Nhan (born in 1980, residing in District 11) and the address 772 Cach Mang Thang Tam, Ward 5, Tan Binh District, owned and operated by Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, to carry out the service of illegally transferring USD to Cambodia for their accomplices.
As a result of the investigation so far, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department has prosecuted 15 subjects for the crimes of "Money Laundering" and "Illegally Transporting Currency Across Borders"; the subjects are all related "links" in this organized, transnational crime ring.
During the investigation, the police searched many locations and temporarily seized more than 1 million USD, many other foreign currencies, more than 9 billion VND, more than 200 seals, business registration certificates and many related documents and electronic devices.
The Office of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department of Investigation continues to clarify the establishment of hundreds of "ghost" companies by subjects to serve criminal activities, determine the responsibilities of related individuals and organizations to handle and recommend overcoming loopholes and shortcomings to prevent crime.