On the afternoon of May 20, the Hanoi People's Court issued a verdict against 21 people in a transnational fraud and money laundering ring, withdrawing cash from 20-150 billion VND per day.
From May 15 to 20, the Hanoi People's Court tried and sentenced 21 defendants in the case of "fraudulent appropriation of property" and "money laundering" related to a transnational money laundering ring led by Chinese subjects.
Of the 21 defendants, 14 were prosecuted by the Hanoi People's Procuracy for "fraudulent appropriation of property" and 7 were prosecuted for "money laundering".
The jury sentenced: Mac Binh Hung (head of the finance team of the 777pay department specializing in money laundering in the Vietnamese market) to 18 years in prison; Nguyen Van Bang (deputy head), Vu Xuan Huy, and Chang Hen Phan to 16 years in prison. The remaining 10 defendants in the group that committed the crime of "fraudulent appropriation of property" were sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison.
For the group of "money laundering" criminals, Dinh Van Hung was sentenced to 11 years in prison, with an additional fine of 50 million VND; Le Tran Viet Anh to 10 years in prison. The remaining defendants were sentenced to 6-9 years in prison.
Regarding civil liability, the court noted that the defendants had paid more than VND8.3 billion to remedy the consequences. The remaining VND11.5 billion, the defendants in the group that committed the crime of "fraudulent appropriation of property" must jointly compensate the victims.
The jury found that at the trial, the defendants all admitted their actions, claiming they did not know that the parent company (Jinbian) was a criminal organization; were paid high salaries, and if they did not complete their work, they would be forced and threatened...
However, the jury determined that the defendants had the role of accomplices in the case because they participated in one of the stages of the fraud organized by the ringleaders.
Although the defendants have confessed honestly and remedied the consequences, their acts of fraud, appropriation of property, and money laundering are very dangerous, violate the State's economic management order, and cause large amounts of damage... therefore, it is necessary to impose severe sentences according to the criminal role.
Regarding the money laundering, the jury assessed that the 7 defendants in the case knew that the source of the money was illegal but still committed the money laundering. This act helped the fraudsters to appropriate the money. The defendants' actions were dangerous to society, turning "dirty" money into "clean" money in extremely sophisticated ways.
The defendants in the group of fraud criminals worked under instructions, divided into departments; in which, defendant Mac Binh Hung held the highest role, second was defendant Nguyen Van Bang.
These defendants worked under labor contracts and were instructed to commit crimes; however, the investigation did not determine that these defendants worked in an environment of forced labor. Therefore, the jury affirmed that the defendants were accomplices in the fraud and money laundering ring.
Previously, from the case of Ms. Nguyen Thi L. (residing in Hanoi) being defrauded of nearly 20 billion VND in August 2022, the investigation agency conducted verification and concluded: Ms. L. was approached by a transnational fraud ring to defraud and launder assets, and carried out sophisticated fraud. After that, Ms. L. performed the task of transferring money as assigned by the subjects many times.
After the first two transfers of 160,000 VND and 3 million VND, and then being returned 250,000 VND and 4.5 million VND respectively, Ms. L. continued to be lured into transferring a total of nearly 20 billion VND to the scam group many times; the largest transfer was 4 billion VND.
The police agency determined that Ms. L.'s money receiving accounts were managed by the 777pay department, belonging to Jinbian Company (headquartered at Starcity building, Phnom Penh capital, Kingdom of Cambodia). This is a criminal organization operating in the field of money laundering for gambling apps or fraudsters, as an intermediary payment gateway.
Jinbian Company was hired by a criminal group to coordinate the fraud activities, then assigned departments to carry out money laundering activities. This company is divided into 8 departments; in addition to the technical and administrative departments, other departments provide money laundering services for subjects in China, India, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.
In particular, the 777pay department specializes in money laundering in the Vietnamese market, managed by Tan Zhi Bao (also known as Gu Lang, born in 1986, Chinese nationality). The 777pay department used the trick of establishing an intermediary payment portal called "VNPAY" (impersonating a payment portal in Vietnam), with the website address http://mem.777.org to transfer and receive money in order to convert "dirty" money into "clean" money, whose origin cannot be traced.
After defrauding and appropriating nearly 20 billion VND from Ms. L., the subjects laundered the money by transferring it through accounts or buying and selling USDT cryptocurrency to erase the origin of the "dirty" money.
In this case, the ringleader Tan Zhi Bao and several other suspects have fled and are wanted by the police.
TH (according to Tuoi Tre)