Trial of defendants in the muaban24 fraud ring

After many days of trial, on the afternoon of June 30, the People's Court sentenced the defendants in the muaban24.vn fraud ring.

From June 25 to 30, the Hanoi People's Court brought defendants Ngo Van Huy (born 1973, in Tu Liem, Hanoi), Le Van Cuong (born 1975, Tu Liem, Hanoi) and Nguyen Manh Ha (born 1980, in Soc Son, Hanoi) to trial for the crime of using the network, computer, telecommunications network, internet or digital devices to commit acts of property appropriation.

After a lengthy deliberation, on the afternoon of June 30, the People's Court sentenced defendant Ngo Van Huy to 16 years in prison; Le Van Cuong to 14 years in prison; and Nguyen Manh Ha to 12 years in prison.

The defendants in court.

According to the indictment, around May 2011, Nguyen Tuan Minh, Ngo Van Huy and Le Van Cuong established the Online Trading Training Joint Stock Company (abbreviated as MB24 Company), with Minh as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Minh is in charge of administration and accounting; Huy is the director in charge of market development; Cuong is the deputy director in charge of communications.

Although not licensed by the Department of E-commerce - Ministry of Industry and Trade to provide e-commerce trading floor services, Minh, Huy, Cuong and Ha advertised on the website muaban24.vn as an e-commerce trading floor and created fake stores to appropriate money.

When the website muaban24.vn was newly established and did not have many members, the subjects automatically transferred more than 17,000 members from Tam Mat Troi Company (headquartered in Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Ho Chi Minh City) into the system without having to pay any money, with the aim of defrauding members into the MB24 system.

Nguyen Manh Ha has been propagandizing and enticing others to sell virtual booths on the website muaban24.vn, taking money from later members to pay previous members, creating an account to put virtual money into the system and then withdrawing real money from members to appropriate it.

During its operation, MB24 Company has developed 5 branches in Hanoi. The branches are registered for business, automatically and independently accounted for. The branches pay commissions to MB24 Company when new members join.

During the period from May 2011 to July 2012, Minh and his accomplices sold 121,349 virtual stores for over 631 billion VND.

Minh and his accomplices withdrew nearly 31 billion VND, which they had appropriated from the members. The group spent this money on personal expenses.

According to the indictment, there are currently more than 100 victims who have filed complaints requesting compensation and handling of the subjects of MB24 Company.

Of the four subjects mentioned above, Nguyen Tuan Minh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MB24 Company, has absconded, so the investigation agency decided to separate the case file and handle it later.

In court, the defendants said that each person performed their own tasks, but the management of the entire work was done by “boss” Nguyen Tuan Minh. Mr. Minh was the one who managed all the work remotely, via the internet.

The panel of judges determined that the defendants' testimonies were consistent with the victims' testimonies and the evidence in the case, providing sufficient grounds to convict the defendants of the crimes as prosecuted by the Procuracy.

The defendant's criminal behavior has had an especially large impact on the property of many people, from many social classes, causing social insecurity.

In fact, MB24 Company has collected more than 30 billion VND according to tax reports, and currently has no money to refund the victims, so it is necessary to force the defendants to isolate themselves from society for a long time to be a sufficient deterrent.

The defendants were ordered to compensate more than 100 victims according to the provisions of law.

The investigation agency determined that, in addition to the above-mentioned prosecutions, the MB24 Company Branches in 31 provinces and cities were assigned to investigate.

Up to now, 12 provincial and municipal investigation agencies have had investigation commission results, while the remaining 19 provinces and municipalities have not had commission results. Therefore, the investigation police agency - Hanoi City Police decided to separate and withdraw documents related to 31 provinces and municipalities for later investigation and handling.

According to Hanoi Moi Online