On September 5, the People’s Court of Hanoi sentenced Vo Tien Trinh (born 1989, from Da Nang) to four years in prison and Vo Quoc Toan (born 1992, from Quang Binh) to 30 months in prison for the illegal collection, storage, exchange, and trading of information related to bank accounts. The two defendants were also fined an additional 50 million VND each.
According to the indictment, through supervision, the State Securities Commission discovered abnormal trading activities involving 15 Vietnamese company accounts and one foreign account held by AP Capital Investment Limited.
These transactions involved pairs of accounts opening and closing positions by trading with each other within the same day or over a five-day period, mainly through matched orders and negotiated prices. The foreign account consistently profited from these trades at the expense of the Vietnamese accounts, which bought at high prices and sold at low prices, incurring losses.
The profits were transferred to the account of AP Capital Investment Limited. All these accounts used the same IP address in Hong Kong to place orders for derivatives trading, leading the Securities Commission to request the police to investigate.
The investigation revealed that in 2021, Vo Tien Trinh was approached by Wang Yong Quan Wilfred (a Singaporean national) who was working for Mamoru Vietnam, a company engaged in digital currency and securities investment. Wilfred’s boss, Chiu Cheuk Man (also known as Patrick), was also the director of AP Capital Investment Limited and wanted to invest in digital currencies in Vietnam.
To facilitate this, Wilfred offered to pay Trinh the equivalent of 800 USDT per month to open an account and transfer it to Mamoru. Trinh agreed and purchased a new SIM card and phone to set up a personal account, Internet banking, and accounts on digital currency exchanges. All passwords and account information were then handed over to Wilfred for Mamoru’s use, and the SIM card and phone were sent to China.
In July 2021, Wilfred asked Trinh to establish a company and open bank and securities accounts for “securities investment,” with an additional monthly payment of approximately 400 USDT. Trinh was instructed to contact a law firm for assistance and subsequently signed a power of attorney, authorizing them to establish the company and open the necessary accounts, which were then transferred to Wilfred.
Towards the end of 2021, Trinh grew curious about the activities in these accounts and requested a bank statement. He was shocked to discover that within a few months, his account had transacted 240 billion VND. Concerned, he confided in Wilfred, who informed him that each account needed to transact the equivalent of 50 million USDT in digital currencies. The law firm then advised that each account should transact no more than 10 million USDT to stay under the radar.
As a result, Mamoru hired Trinh for a salary of over 45 million VND per month to borrow personal information from acquaintances and friends to set up securities and bank accounts. In total, Trinh opened 64 securities accounts with corresponding bank accounts and received 3.3 billion VND. The authorities determined that, after expenses, Trinh illegally profited by over 2.9 billion VND.
When Trinh left Mamoru, Vo Quoc Toan was hired to take his place. Toan established 16 securities and 16 bank accounts for the company and received 377 million VND in illegal profits. The court ordered the confiscation of all ill-gotten gains from both Trinh and Toan, totaling nearly 3.3 billion VND. The cases of other involved individuals, including foreign nationals, have been separated for further handling.
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