Breaking up a transnational crime ring

From December 2020 to July 2023, the group used many "ghost" commercial legal entities to organize lending activities with interest rates of more than 2,300%/year.

On July 24, Major General Nguyen Duc Dung, Director of Quang Nam Provincial Police, said that the Provincial Police had just coordinated with the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (A05) - Ministry of Public Security and professional units of the Ministry, and police of many provinces and cities to destroy a transnational crime ring led by Chinese people.

According to records, through the implementation of professional measures, Quang Nam Provincial Police discovered that many people in the province and many provinces and cities across the country were lured by subjects to install quick loan apps to borrow money at high interest rates.

Through verification results, this is a criminal gang operating in an organized manner, with sophisticated and complex methods, and close collusion and connection between the Chinese masterminds and Vietnamese accomplices.

From December 2020 to July 2023, the group used many "ghost" commercial legal entities to organize lending activities with interest rates of more than 2,300%/year. More than 1 million people nationwide borrowed money through the "Great Vay" application on mobile phones (including many smaller applications such as Abc Tien, cashGo, Like Tien, Vi Dong...) and linked to store borrower data on the website with the address https://xxxxxx.com located on the server of Alibaba Cloud, Singapore.

To conceal their loan sharking behavior, the subjects established dozens of "ghost" companies, using thousands of bank accounts to transfer money back and forth for the purpose of "money laundering" and illegally transferring money across borders. Along with that, the subjects used "gangster"-style debt collection activities, causing disorder and creating bad public opinion in society.

The Investigation Police read the order to prosecute the accused and temporarily detain 3 Chinese nationals. Photo: Provided by the police.

On July 3, Quang Nam Provincial Police presided over and coordinated with the Provincial People's Procuracy, Department A05, Department of Technical Affairs, Department of Offline Affairs of the Ministry of Public Security , Mobile Police Command, Hanoi City Police, Ho Chi Minh City Police, Khanh Hoa Province and police of the Southeast provinces to simultaneously deploy professional measures to execute emergency search warrants on 3 intermediary payment companies and 28 locations, and summon 60 related subjects for questioning.

The initial investigation determined that the total amount of money the criminals had committed through intermediary payment companies and loan shark organizations up to the time of arrest was 20,000 billion VND. The subjects illegally profited over 8,000 billion VND, organized "money laundering" and transferred illegally earned money out of Vietnam over 5,000 billion VND.

The police seized many related objects and documents such as 2 cars, 1 large-displacement motorbike, froze the transactions of 11 real estate properties (worth over 70 billion VND), more than 100 computers, phones of various types and many other important documents and evidence; and froze 88 bank accounts with an amount of over 36 billion VND.

The Investigation Security Agency of Quang Nam Province Police has decided to prosecute the case of "Lending at high interest rates in civil transactions"; "Extortion of property"; "Illegal transportation of goods and currency across the border"; and decided to prosecute and temporarily detain 45 suspects, including 3 Chinese nationals. The case is currently under further investigation.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/phap-luat/pha-duong-day-toi-pham-xuyen-quoc-gia-20230724214913166.htm