Two directors from two Ha Noi companies were summoned by local police yesterday for conning some US$120,000 from investors by luring people to deposit money through the website www.vip_viet.com.

Vu Duc Tho in his office

The two suspects are Thoi Dai Finance Investment Joint Stock Company Director Uong Thi Dong and Tri Viet Finance Investment Joint Stock Company General Director Vu Duc Tho.

Dong confessed to having deceived 432 people into depositing US$17,280 into his company’s account, while Tho reportedly lured 2,211 people into joining his project, depositing at least US$30 to the vip_viet website, providing Tho with illegal access to over US$100,000.

Most of the deposited money was said to have been pocketed by Tho and Dong.

Notably, many of Tho’s clients were students who later joined the online fraud ring themselves.

Luong Dinh Thieu, who headed one vip_viet agency and claims to be a “soldier”, was also found to have tricked thousands of others into joining the program.

Police decided to seek indictments against Tho, Dong and Nguyen Tuan Thach, a member of the Colony ring who conspired with Tran Tieu Linh and others to steal VND1 billion (over US$61,700) from their marks.

Colony leader faces justice

In related news, Tran Ke Minh Ha, one of the five Colony fraud-ring leaders was indicted and had his resident searched by investigators yesterday.

Police found Ha’s main duty in the organization was to manage investors’ accounts and deposits. When the organization could no longer pay interest or return deposits to investors, Ha would crash the colony website and run away with the stolen money.

Ha and Ly Hue Quyen, one of his conspirators, confessed yesterday that each of them pocketed VND2 billion (some US$123,456) from investors.

More suspects involved in the Colony case were summoned by police, including a family of three in the southern province of Dong Thap and thirteen Colony agency heads in the northern provinces of Lang Son and Thai Nguyen.

Kap Van Huynh, one of the fraud ring’s members in the northern province of Bac Ninh gave himself up to local police yesterday. Huynh provided useful evidence on the ring’s activities to investigators.
In other news, Ha Tay Provincial Police discovered yet another, possibly copycat online fraud agency in Quoc Oai District. 

Related articles:
More Colony Invest Fraud Rings Members Captured
Police Crack Down on Multi-million-dollar Fraud Rings
Something for Nothing Like Never Before