Five arrested for helping foreign criminals launder $13.7M

By Tuyet Nhung, Nhat Vy July 10, 2024 | 10:18 pm PT

Pham Van Nghia (L) and his accomplice at a police station in Tay Ninh Province. Photo by VnExpress/Tuyet Nhung

Five people in southern Tay Ninh Province were arrested after allegedly helping foreign criminals launder money by selling them bank accounts.

Pham Van Nghia, 45; Ngoc Tuan Anh, 27; Vuong Thi Hoa, 35 and two other people were detained by police of Tay Ninh on Wednesday for obtaining property by fraud; illegal collection, storage, exchanging, trading, publishing of information about bank accounts; and money laundering.

Authorities said Nghia and his accomplices knew that many people in Cambodia needed bank accounts in Vietnam to perform online scams, so they bought bank accounts from people in Vietnam and sold them for up to VND3 million ($118) per account. They have bought and sold 64 accounts.

From the bank accounts provided by Nghia's group, criminals would use them to swindle hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong. Anh and Hoa then transfered the money to Ngo Xuan Phuong, 28.

From September 2022 to May 2023, Phuong received over VND350 billion (US$13.77 million) from Anh and Hoa. The money was then used to purchase around 15 million USDT, a form of cryptocurrency, which was then transferred to e-wallets of criminals abroad.

An investigation is ongoing.