Mai Vu Minh (41), Le Thi Tham, Okoye Christian Ikechukwy (Tham's Nigerian husband), Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, and Nguyen Thi Huong will be tried by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court for money laundering on 6/1.
In connection with the case, Pham Van Nhan (46), Duong Dai Nghia (43), Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (42), Do Viet Dai (55, owner of Duc Long gold shop, who lived with Ngan as a couple), along with 10 other defendants, have been prosecuted for illegally transporting currency across borders.
Mai Tra My, identified as the ringleader of the money laundering network, has already left the country for Nigeria. My and Eneh Davidson Caleb (Thuy's Nigerian lover) are currently wanted by the Ho Chi Minh City Police and will be dealt with upon apprehension.
More than 250 shell companies laundered money for criminals.
The indictment states that in late 2023, Mai Tra My instructed her younger brother, Mai Vu Minh, to establish shell companies and open bank accounts, including foreign currency accounts, to receive money transferred from foreign businesses. After the money was transferred, Minh converted it to Vietnamese dong and then forwarded it to accounts designated by My, receiving a 2% commission.
From 2023 to 2024, Minh established 9 companies at My's request, using three of them to receive money from abroad. In total, Minh made three withdrawals of 789,057 USD transferred by foreign businesses, converting it to over 19 billion dong, and transferred it to various personal accounts as instructed by his sister. Minh profited over 383 million dong.
According to prosecuting authorities, this money was illicitly obtained by a group of foreign criminals, primarily from Nigeria. They used technology to infiltrate the emails of businesses and partners discussing economic contracts, then created fake email addresses with similar names, differing by only one character, to continue communicating with the partners.
By fabricating reasons to change payment accounts on invoices and contracts, the crime group tricked many foreign partners into transferring money to accounts they provided, thereby defrauding them.
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Several individuals involved in the case at the time of their arrest in 4/2024. Photo: Police provided |
In this money laundering network, besides Minh, Le Thi Tham and her husband Okoye were also involved. According to the indictment, Tham worked as a factory worker and Okoye as a construction helper; they married in 2020. By 2023, after Tham was involved in a traffic accident, their family faced financial difficulties.
At this time, a Nigerian friend of Okoye's suggested that Tham and her husband join the network to establish companies in Vietnam under names specified by this person, to receive illicit funds from abroad. After the money was transferred, they would withdraw and transfer it as requested, earning a commission from 3% to 7% of the withdrawn amount. Both agreed to participate.
Consequently, Tham registered 53 companies, located in Ho Chi Minh City, opened USD and VND accounts, and then, with her husband, received, withdrew, and transferred money for the foreign crime group. Prosecuting authorities determined that Tham and her husband received money from the companies four times, totaling nearly 1.5 million USD, equivalent to over 36 billion dong, and profited over 2 billion dong.
Using a similar method, the branch involving Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, Eneh Davidson Caleb, and Nguyen Thi Huong established nearly 200 shell companies. In total, this group received over 6 million USD from foreign businesses 15 times, which was then converted to nearly 150 billion dong and transferred to accounts as instructed by the criminals, profiting over one billion dong.
In this case, under My's instructions, Minh also illegally transferred 10 billion dong to Cambodia for his sister through Duong Dai Nghia's Kingfood Edible Bird's Nest facility.
Further investigation revealed two additional networks illegally transporting thousands of billions of dong across borders through the bird's nest shop and a gold shop.
Hai Duyen
