The ring's head and its staff are arrested. Photo courtesy by the Hà Tinh Police

HÀ TĨNH — A ring of trans-national gambling and money laundering has been dismantled in the central province of Hà Tĩnh, the local police has announced.

The ring with transaction worth more than VNĐ1 trillion (US$38.4 million) is headed by Taiwanese nationals, according to the police.

According to the police, through intelligence gathering, they discovered a sophisticated trans-national money laundering ring operating online, involving collusion between foreign and Vietnamese individuals.

The task force mobilised 66 officers and soldiers to simultaneously arrest, search and summon 36 subjects in HCM City, Hà Nội, Hà Tĩnh and Lâm Đồng provinces, and Đà Nẵng City.

The police initially determined that the ring was led by five individuals residing in Taiwan (China), directly operating criminal activities in Vietnamese territory.

They are Chang Chia Hsien, born 1995, Yu Li Hao, born 1998, Pan Kun Yen, born 1992, Hsueh Wei Chung, born 1994, and Lin Huy Mei, born 2001.

The investigation showed that from April to the time of the bust in June, the subjects had organised illegal gambling and money laundering in cyberspace under the remote control of subjects in Taiwan.

This group regularly changes operating locations and rotates staff every two months to deal with authorities.

The subjects hired apartments in three residential buildings in Thủ Dầu Một and Chánh Hưng wards in HCM City and directly guided Vietnamese staff to do criminal activities.

To cover the criminal acts, the subjects recruited many Vietnamese people to register mobile phone and bank accounts in several credit institutions. Each bank account has transaction limit of VNĐ1–3billion ($46,000–114,000).

The Vietnamese people were required to use phone numbers that do not match the bank account registration information to avoid detection.

Initially, the police determined that during two months of operation, the ring used 266 bank accounts to carry out money laundering with a total transaction of over VNĐ1 trillion.

During the search, the police seized 56 personal mobile phones, 266 phones used for the criminal activity, three computer sets and many documents.

The Hà Tĩnh Police has decided to launch legal proceedings against the subjects for the crimes of "Gambling" and "Money Laundering" to continue the investigation and handle according to the law. — VNS