The Legal Representative of 116 Companies Has Been Detained by Ho Chi Minh City Police

On June 28, sources revealed that the Tax Department of Ho Chi Minh City’s District 6 sent a warning notice to the city’s Department of Taxation and other tax departments in the area. The warning concerned the discovery of Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong (born 1990, from Hai Hau, Nam Dinh province) acting as the legal representative for 116 companies based in Ho Chi Minh City.

During a data rescue process on the centralized tax management application (TMS), it was found that Ms. Huong was registered as the legal representative for these companies, all of which were established between December 2023 and March 2024. Of the 116 companies, 5 were registered in District 6, 22 in Tan Binh District, 15 in Tan Phu District, 11 in Thu Duc City, 10 in District 10, and 5 in District 5.

Notably, Ms. Huong was arrested and detained by the Ho Chi Minh City Police in late April 2024 in connection with a money laundering case. She was one of 13 individuals arrested and charged with two criminal offenses related to a transnational organized crime network.

The criminal network operated by infiltrating the emails of companies engaged in business transactions and economic contracts. They would then create fake emails with similar names to the victim companies’ partners and communicate with them, providing reasons to change transaction accounts.

Foreign accomplices directed local accomplices to establish numerous shell companies with names resembling those of the victim companies’ partners. These shell companies would then open foreign currency accounts and Vietnamese Dong accounts.

The group provided the victim companies with the shell companies’ account information, leading them to mistakenly transfer money to these accounts. Once the funds were received in the USD accounts, the shell companies would quickly convert the money into VND. The group would then transfer the funds into the personal accounts of individuals in Vietnam.

The money was withdrawn and taken to a bird’s nest facility owned by Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy and Pham Van Nhan, where it was illegally transferred into USD and sent to accomplices in Cambodia. The group also took money to a gold shop, D.L., in Tan Binh District, owned by Do Viet Dai and Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, to be transferred to Cambodia.

The network directly or indirectly established over 250 shell companies to open accounts for their criminal activities. They also admitted to opening more than 700 personal accounts for the same purpose. The Ho Chi Minh City Police have identified over 100 related accounts, searched 12 locations, and temporarily seized numerous objects and documents related to the case.

During the search of the home of Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy and her husband, Eneh Davidson Caleb, the police confiscated 234 seals of shell companies. At the bird’s nest facility and the D.L. gold shop, they temporarily seized over VND 9 billion and USD 1.5 million, along with other foreign currencies.

Initial investigation documents indicate that the total illegal transaction value involving the D.L. gold shop is approximately VND 13,000 billion.