Defendants at the trial by the People's Court of the northern province Hải Dương. — Photo from the Hải Dương Newspaper

HẢI DƯƠNG — The People's Court of the northern province Hải Dương has just held a first-instance trial for five defendants charged with illegally storing bank account information and money laundering.

According to the indictment, from December 2023 to April 12, 2024, in Hải Dương and several other provinces and cities, Hoàng Đình Hiển (born 1999, residing in Bình Xuyên Commune, Bình Giang District) purchased 132 bank accounts from 38 individuals and then sold them to Nguyễn Văn Hậu (born 1993, residing in Lương Tài Commune, Văn Lâm District, Hưng Yên Province).

Subsequently, Hậu handed these accounts over to three Taiwanese: Tai Ching Yu (born 1996), Lin Xin Ying (born 2001), and Wang Pei De (born 1999), who managed and used them.

These individuals rented Apartment 802 at Green Pearl Residence in Bắc Ninh City as their base of operations.

The three foreigners received a total of US$6.5 million transferred from overseas accounts, which they converted into Vietnamese đồng of over VNĐ162.6 billion.

About VNĐ160 billion was used to purchase digital cryptocurrencies, which were transferred to electronic wallets and withdrawn abroad — an effort to disguise the criminal origins of the funds.

More than VNĐ2 billion, which had not yet been converted into cryptocurrencies, was discovered and seized by Hải Dương Provincial Police’s Investigation Agency. In this case, all defendants played direct roles in committing the crimes.

The court sentenced Tai Ching Yu, Lin Xin Ying, and Wang Pei De each to 14 years in prison for illegally storing bank account information and money laundering.

Nguyễn Văn Hậu and Hoàng Đình Hiển were each sentenced to 1 year and 3 months in prison for illegally trading bank account information. — VNS