Two former police officers sentenced for staged cryptocurrency robbery

SGGPO 05/16/2023 21:24

On May 16, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Ho Ngoc Tai (born in 1989), Nguyen Quoc Dung (born in 1981, former officer of the Criminal Police Department, PC02, Ho Chi Minh City Police), Nguyen Anh Tuan (born in 1993, former officer of Ward 5 Police , District 5, Ho Chi Minh City), and 13 other defendants for the crime of Robbery.

Defendants in court

The defendants' defense attorneys argued that the defendants' appropriation of Bitcoin is not property, there has not been any professional conclusion to determine it, and Vietnamese law does not have regulations that Bitcoin is currency.

Defendants in court

The panel of judges said that Vietnamese law does not yet accept Bitcoin as a currency or a means of payment, but the court did not base its verdict solely on the asset valuation and appraisal results.

The panel of judges assessed that the defendants’ actions were a crime of robbery, so there was no basis to accept the defense of the lawyer. The defendants’ actions were particularly dangerous, organized crime, so they needed to be isolated from society for a period of time for general deterrence and prevention.

Therefore, the People's Court sentenced Ho Ngoc Tai and Tran Ngoc Hoang to life in prison; the other defendants also received 9-19 years in prison for the crime of robbery.

According to the indictment, in 2018, after being advised by Mr. N. to sell virtual currency, Tai agreed to invest and lost. Believing that he had been scammed, Tai planned to control and force Mr. N. to return the money.

Guns seized

Through a tracking device secretly installed on Mr. N.'s car, on May 17, Tai and his friends discovered that he was driving on the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway, so they staged a traffic collision and restrained Mr. N. and his relatives. After that, Tai's group took Mr. N.'s phone and transferred virtual money to their account, selling it for nearly 19 billion VND, and divided it among themselves to spend.

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/vu-dan-canh-cuop-tien-ao-2-cuu-cong-an-lanh-an-post689947.html