HÀ NỘI — The Hà Nội People’s Court opened the first hearing in an illegal gold trading case against International Gold Trading Joint Stock Company (IG JSC) on Monday.

Of the 11 accused, ten were charged with illegal trading in accordance with Article 159, clause 2 of the 1999 Panel Code. They are Mai Xuân Tú, general director of IG JSC; Lương Trần Hưng, director of the Hải Dương branch; Lưu Công Khánh, Lưu Trung Kiên and Vũ Văn Thuấn, staff of the Thanh Hóa branch; Phạm Đức Tài, Trần Hồng Nhung, Nguyễn Ngọc Thế, Nguyễn Ngọc Giới, staff of IG JSC and Nguyễn Doãn Hùng, director of Nhân Đôi Consultancy one member limited company.

Phạm Đức Tài, Lưu Công Khánh and Vũ Đình Hùng were accused of using telecommunications networks and digital devices to illegally appropriate other people’ property in accordance with Article 226, Clause 4 of the 1999 Panel Code.

According to the indictment, from October 2013 to February 2015, Pham Duc Tai set up IG JSC at 165 Thai Ha in Hà Nội’s Dong Da District.  The company had branch offices in Hải Dương, Thanh Hóa and Thái Nguyên provinces.

Tài instructed Khánh to purchase software to trade gold online.

Tài and his staff also forged paperwork to create a business license for a fake company called NAPMIG that claimed to specialise in online gold trading. Then they advertised IG as an authorised NAPMIG agency to customers, inviting them to invest in its virtual gold trading floor.

Investigators said IG stole over US $2.97 million, equal to about 4,000 taels of gold.

They also found that IG JSC did not have a license to raise capital or trade in gold bars or deposits.

From April 2012 to August 2013, as director of Nhân Đôi Consultancy, Nguyễn Doãn Hùng worked with IG JSC 40 customers to trade gold. Hùng’s company got VNĐ 98 million ($4,200) in profit while IG earned VNĐ 230 million ($9,860) through the deals.

The trial is scheduled to end on October 15. — VNS