Being prosecuted, Ngan 98: 'I trusted the weight loss product factory too much'

After being prosecuted and temporarily detained, Ngan 98 apologized to her customers for "trusting the factory too much without checking again".

Ngan 98 works with the investigation agency - Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Police

On October 13, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department is expanding the investigation into the case of "manufacturing and trading in counterfeit food products" carried out by defendant Vo Thi Ngoc Ngan (commonly known as Ngan 98).

The investigation agency said that during the working process with the investigation agency, Ngan was not honest, gave evasive statements, and blamed other individuals to avoid responsibility.

Ngan 98 blames the factory

When working with the investigation agency, Ngan stated that her mother - Ms. TTT - was the legal representative of ZuBu Company because Ngan asked her to. The reason was that Ngan often performed and did not have time to sign documents, so she let her mother sign on her behalf. Ngan affirmed that her mother only stood in for her and knew absolutely nothing about the company's business activities.

Ngan 98 said she was not familiar with legal procedures and trusted the company because "the manufacturer had connections and could take care of the declaration and quality inspection."

"I trust the factory, they take my money and make a declaration, quality inspection, I think the product must be of real quality to be granted that certificate by the authorities, I just believe that and sell it.

I realized my mistake was trusting the factory too much. I just thought the documents the factory gave me were legal, so I just sold them like that," Ngan said.

Explaining the advertisement of the 3 products "without doing anything, you can still lose from 4 to 15kg", Ngan said: "I advertise based on my experience, I was also fat in the past, at that time I was over 70kg, I drank it and lost 20kg, I speak based on my feelings".

Previously, in the media, Ngan 98 said that she was only the "image representative" of ZuBu Company and did not participate in the management. However, at the investigation agency, she explained that if she said the product was hers, customers would think she was praising herself to sell, so she said she was the image representative "to be more objective".

Ngan 98 also apologized to those who bought its products because they "trusted the factory too much without checking again."

Weight loss products that Ngan 98 ordered to be manufactured and packaged Collagen vegetable pills (right) - Photo: Provided by the police

Ngan 98 is not cooperative and responds in a sophisticated manner.

An investigator from the Economic Police Department said that tracking and arresting Ngan 98 was very difficult because she was a famous person, frequently traveled and lived in high-end apartments. Ngan 98 had many coping methods, even refusing to cooperate, yelling and causing obstruction when summoned to work.

Under the direction of the Economic Police Department, the detectives monitored for a long time, collected documents and evidence before executing the temporary detention order against Ngan.

On the same day, the Economic Police Department worked with singer Luong Bang Quang (43 years old, Ngan's husband) and continued to expand the investigation into the role of related individuals.

As reported by Tuoi Tre Online , Ngan 98 established ZuBu Company (her mother is the director) and the ZuBu shop business (in someone else's name), but all operations and profits are directly managed by Ngan.

Since 2021, Ngan has cooperated with factories in Hanoi to produce legally licensed weight loss products Super Detox X3, X7, X1000.

However, Ngan secretly produced additional "Collagen vegetable pills", this product was not licensed, had no published records, but was still packaged and labeled with the same brand name X3 - X7 - X1000.

Ngan wrote "free gift, not for sale" on the packaging to circumvent the law, but in reality sold it as a complete weight loss product set, priced at 870,000 - 1,100,000 VND/set, promising to help lose 4-15kg.

Goods were transferred from the factory in Hanoi to the warehouse in Ho Chi Minh City, distributed via Facebook, TikTok and the ZuBu hotline. Sales proceeds were transferred through many accounts of relatives and employees to conceal the cash flow, then concentrated in Ngan's personal account. During the period 2023 - 2024, revenue reached hundreds of billions of VND.

The appraisal results of the Criminal Science Institute of the Ministry of Public Security determined that Ngan's products were of poor quality and were counterfeit, including Collagen pills containing the banned substances sibutramin and phenolphthalein - which can cause cardiovascular and digestive disorders and cancer risk.

PURE DAN THUAN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bi-khoi-to-ngan-98-em-qua-tin-tuong-vao-nha-may-san-xuat-san-pham-giam-can-20251013195802428.htm