Tiktoker Mr Pips prosecuted for financial investment fraud

On December 6, the Hanoi People's Procuracy coordinated with the Hanoi Police to continue to expand the investigation into a fraud ring that appropriated assets on the internet. Currently, the total assets seized and frozen by the authorities from the subjects is about more than 5,000 billion VND.

Accordingly, the authorities have decided to prosecute the case and prosecute Pho Duc Nam (Tiktoker Mr Pips; born in 1994, residing in Ward 8, Vung Tau City, Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province); Le Khac Ngo (born in 1990, residing in Phu Dien Ward, Bac Tu Liem District, Hanoi City) and 24 other defendants for the crimes of "fraudulent appropriation of property", "failure to report a crime" and "money laundering" as prescribed in Articles 174, 390 and 324 of the Penal Code.

Tiktoker Mr Pips (Pho Duc Nam) is famous for his videos posting about his luxurious life and teaching how to make money, with hundreds of thousands of followers on Tiktok and Youtube.

According to investigation documents, in June 2019, Pho Duc Nam colluded with Le Khac Ngo to set up a fraud ring to appropriate assets, following the model of securities brokerage companies.

To lure people to commit fraud, these subjects hide under the names of companies and websites operating in the fields of Tele Marketing (marketing and promoting products via phone), Tele Sale (consulting and selling via phone), financial investment consulting, and stock brokerage (investing in stock codes of brands and multinational corporations operating on international stock exchanges, with stock codes such as: Facebook, Apple, Pepsi, Microsoft, Adidas) to lure and entice customers to participate.

At the same time, the subjects set up the website “artexvina.co” to recruit employees, building the image of a company operating systematically and professionally in the field of securities investment consulting on international exchanges. After that, Nam and Ngo used the staff to approach, advise, and invite customers to participate in investment. At the same time, this group of defendants established branches nationwide, mainly concentrated in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang and Cambodia.

The prosecution agency determined that Pho Duc Nam and his accomplices used many "ghost" company accounts and e-wallets to receive money from customers, lured customers into private chat groups, instructed victims to deposit and withdraw money skillfully to create trust, then advised them to place large orders, stimulated them to deposit more money, and used borrowed money leverage to quickly burn their accounts (lose all their money).

When the victims have lost all their money, the subjects will continue to invite the victims to join a new floor with more attractive offers and introductions; committing to win back the lost money, in order to continue to appropriate the victims' assets.

To commit the crime, Pho Duc Nam and Le Khac Ngo organized and established many different departments (IT department, Support department, administrative department, security department...) and trained them thoroughly in the system.

Conducting urgent searches of the subjects' residences and workplaces, the Investigation Agency seized and frozen the subjects' assets worth a total of more than VND 5,000 billion, including: VND 127 billion in cash, savings books worth about VND 306 billion, 216 kg of gold, 128 real estates, 30 cars of various types, frozen VND 9 billion in bonds and many other valuable assets.