On the afternoon of November 27th, the Ha Tinh Provincial Police announced that they had uncovered the scheme of three individuals who exploited the name of journalism to illegally profit 1 billion VND per month.
According to the Police Investigation Agency, recently in Ha Tinh province and some other provinces and cities, a group of individuals has been exploiting the press to commit crimes, causing public outrage. Some have falsely claimed to be reporters from media outlets (mainly magazines belonging to social organizations and socio-professional organizations) to harass agencies, businesses, and localities.
In Ha Tinh province, frustrated by this situation, representatives of the provincial business community recently submitted a petition to Colonel Nguyen Hong Phong, Director of the Provincial Police, requesting that he direct relevant agencies to investigate and take corrective measures.
Colonel Nguyen Hong Phong, Director of the Ha Tinh Provincial Police, directed the professional units to coordinate with the Department of Information and Communications and other agencies to focus on various measures to prevent and deter such as summoning, reminding, handling administrative and criminal cases against some individuals to deter and prevent similar offenses in general.
The Board of Directors of the Ha Tinh Provincial Police Department has assigned the Criminal Investigation Agency to establish a special task force to combat this group of individuals involved in complex activities, demonstrating disregard for the law and showing signs of criminal activity.
Under the close direction of the Director of the Ha Tinh Provincial Police, the Criminal Investigation Department used professional methods, along with information provided by the public, and on November 27, the Provincial Police Investigation Agency initiated a case and prosecuted three defendants: Le Danh Tao (57 years old, residing in Tran Phu Ward, Ha Tinh City, the ringleader), Ho Thi Hai (41 years old, Director of the Healthy Living and Law Media Company Limited, wife of Le Danh Tao), and Ho Kim Cuong (35 years old, younger brother of Ho Thi Hai) for the crime of "Abusing influence over persons holding positions of power for personal gain".
Colonel Nguyen Hong Phong stated that recently, in the province, there have been numerous cases of individuals forging press and journalist ID cards to deceive traffic police and avoid penalties for violations. Some individuals use fake cards to impersonate media organizations for illicit gain. More seriously, there have been cases of using fake press cards to defraud and extort money from businesses.
According to Colonel Nguyen Hong Phong, exploiting the name of journalism for personal gain is a violation of ethics and law. This behavior has seriously affected the professional ethics and reputation of genuine journalists.
For those who were once reporters and journalists, they understand the law and professional ethics better than anyone else. However, due to self-interest and the use of various tactics to gain profit and extort property, they must be dealt with strictly according to the law to serve as a deterrent and a general education .
The Director of the Ha Tinh Provincial Police also expressed his hope for decisive and coordinated action from various agencies and organizations to help rectify and limit the exploitation of the name of journalism for personal gain.
Reportedly, Le Danh Tao was formerly a journalist and contributor to several newspapers and magazines. During his career, he became acquainted with many traffic police officers and transport inspectors in various provinces and cities, as well as some long-distance freight transport companies.
Having noticed that many drivers frequently committed traffic violations, Tạo demanded that they pay him 6-8 million VND per month per vehicle for "protection." He promised that if the vehicle belonged to him, the authorities would overlook the violation, or if it was stopped or inspected, he would personally call to intervene.
At the same time, Tạo and his accomplices directly approached traffic police and transport inspectors, asking them to be lenient, overlook violations, or impose lighter penalties on drivers who had already paid "bribes."
If their efforts are not met, these individuals threaten to write defamatory and distorted articles; they try every means to uncover wrongdoing in the work of the traffic police force, thereby threatening and coercing them.
To conceal their criminal activities, the group established businesses and transportation cooperatives, legitimizing the "legal fees" that drivers had to pay monthly as cooperative membership fees...
The police determined that Tạo played the leading role in this ring, while his wife and brother-in-law played supporting roles. Using the aforementioned methods, the group illegally profited 1 billion VND per month.
The case is still under investigation and being expanded.
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