2 subjects swindled more than 2000 people out of tens of billions of dong through selling virtual booths

Inviting each other to commit a crime

Online Trading Training Joint Stock Company, headquartered at Lot 04 C8 - My Dinh I urban area, Tu Liem district (Hanoi), was established in 2011, registering many business lines and fields but not e-commerce trading lines.

On June 29, 2011, Online Trading Training Joint Stock Company was licensed to use the website with the domain name: Muaban24.vn to provide online social networking services. Taking advantage of the business registration and website, Online Trading Training Joint Stock Company built a model and organized the e-commerce trading floor muaban24.vn to advertise, attract members, sell electronic booths, appropriate members' money and share commissions on the system.

Knowing some leaders of the Online Trading Training Joint Stock Company, in June 2011, Nguyen Van Duc (born in 1982, from Nam Sach district), residing in Trung Van ward, Nam Tu Liem district, Hanoi) registered to become a member of the Online Trading Training Joint Stock Company. Knowing that the virtual booth business on muaban24.vn website was highly profitable, in July 2011, Duc met and introduced the benefits and profits of this to Nguyen Van Thiet (born in 1974, in Binh Han ward, Hai Duong city), Phung Van Can (born in 1956, residing in Hong Phong commune), Pham Van Hanh (born in 1973, in Hop Tien commune, in the same Nam Sach district), Nguyen Tuan Thuong (born in 1963, residing in Pha Lai ward, Chi Linh city).

The subjects discussed and agreed to open a company branch in Hai Duong. After that, 5 people agreed to contribute 220 million VND to serve the initial activities. The capital was used to rent a house at 331A Dien Bien Phu Street (Hai Duong City), purchase assets, computer equipment, and establish a company branch office with 22 business lines but no e-commerce trading floor business line.

When establishing the company branch, 5 people self-proclaimed and introduced titles without an appointment decision. Among them, Duc was the Director, Thiet was the Deputy Director. In October 2011, Thuong, Can, and Hanh sold their shares to Duc and Thiet. Can and Thuong moved to work elsewhere, while Hanh remained a member of the branch in Hai Duong. Duc's capital contribution ratio at this time was 60%, Thiet's 40%. Duc and Thiet agreed that whoever developed their booths to a certain level would receive various types of commissions paid by the company. The commission on booth development performance after deducting the branch's operating costs was divided according to the capital contribution ratio.

Collect billions of dollars illegally

To attract more people to buy virtual booths of Online Trading Training Joint Stock Company, Duc and Thiet opened training classes to introduce the project and the website muaban24.vn to attract and entice people. Participants had to buy at least 1 virtual booth on the website muaban24.vn for 5.2 million VND. When receiving the money, Duc or Thiet used their accounts to transfer achievement points, denoted as “D” with the convention 1D = 10,000 VND.

The benefits of members are that when buying from the second virtual booth onwards, they will get a discount of 1.5 million VND, introducing new members will receive a direct commission of 1.5 million VND, introducing 2 members will receive an additional benefit of 320,000 VND. Like that, when developing enough 198 booths, the member will reach VIP and directly receive 80 million VND, minus 10% personal income tax, the remaining benefit is 72 million VND. In addition, indirectly benefiting from 99 booths is nearly 31.6 million VND.

To encourage members to develop VIP achievements, this company supports members with 99 booths, members only need to develop 99 booths. When a member has 3 booths (3 accounts) that reach VIP, they will be promoted to the VIP leader level, receiving an additional 1%/booth (52,000 VND/booth). Having 3 booths that reach the VIP leader level will be promoted to the national deputy director level, receiving an additional 1%/booth. Having 4 booths that reach the national deputy director level will be promoted to the national director level, receiving an additional 1%/booth...

During the period from July 2011 to August 2012, Duc and Thiet rented venues to hold many conferences, hired people capable of training and presenting about the multi-level system to promote and attract participants. In fact, this activity was selling virtual booths, there was no transaction of buying and selling goods, and no profit was generated from business activities. The origin of the commissions paid to members was money from later members paid to earlier members and was divided among the subjects of the Online Trading Training Joint Stock Company system.

With the above tricks, the MB24 Hai Duong branch of Duc and Thiet attracted and enticed 2,288 people in the provinces of Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Bac Ninh, Thai Binh, Lao Cai, Vinh Phuc, Bac Giang, and Hanoi to buy 5,776 virtual stores, appropriating a total of more than 24.8 billion. Duc and Thiet were given nearly 5.5 billion by the Online Trading Training Joint Stock Company. After deducting the costs of developing the system and branches, Duc received more than 4.3 billion VND, Thiet received more than 339 million VND.

Duc and Thiet have been prosecuted in Hai Duong Province People's Court awaiting trial. Other related subjects of the Online Trading Training Joint Stock Company system have been and will be tried. Some subjects are being further investigated to clarify their criminal acts.