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On April 20, the Hanoi People’s Court opened a trial and sentenced Nguyen The Anh (born 1995, from Deo Gia commune, Bac Ninh province) to 13 years in prison for “Fraud and appropriation of assets” under Article 174, paragraph 4, point a of the Penal Code.
According to the indictment by the Hanoi People’s Procuracy, in around May 2024 the defendant met an individual using the Telegram handle “USDR” (the identity was not yet determined). During their discussions, “USDR” asked Anh to open a bank account to receive money on his behalf. In practice, the money was transferred into Anh’s accounts by the “USDR” fraudster.
The prosecuting agency said the “USDR” actor unlawfully accessed and took control of other people’s Facebook and Zalo accounts, then impersonated them to text or call their relatives to transfer money into accounts opened by Anh.
Anh testified that he opened multiple bank accounts to receive money from victims. After receiving the funds, he used them to buy cryptocurrency (USDT) on online exchanges and then transferred the USDT to the wallet provided by the “USDR” subject.
The indictment states that on July 24 and 25, 2024, Nguyen The Anh and the “USDR” counterpart carried out eight frauds to obtain nearly 1.2 billion VND from eight victims. Anh’s benefit was more than 7 million VND.
After hacking the Facebook account of Mr. Pham Ngoc T (working in the Federal Republic of Germany), on July 25, 2024, the “USDR” actor used T’s Facebook account to message and contact Mr. Pham Van C (in Hanoi, T’s younger brother). The message claimed T would transfer money back and asked C to receive and transfer money to others. Believing it was his brother’s message, on the same day C transferred 255 million VND into Anh’s account.
After receiving the money, Anh used the funds to buy USDT from another unidentified actor on the Binance exchange, then transferred the USDT to the wallet of the “USDR” entity. Anh kept more than 2.1 million VND.
After hacking the Facebook account of Mr. Vo Ngoc Th (residing in the United States), the “USDR” actor used Th’s account to message Mr. Nguyen Minh Tr (in Ho Chi Minh City; Th’s cousin). The content asked for a loan to transfer to a person’s acquaintance who needed urgent heart surgery, and also referenced transferring money to place a deposit to buy land.
Trusting the message from Th, on July 24, 2024, Mr. Tr transferred 350 million VND to Anh’s account and to a company named HHSon used by Anh.
After receiving the money, Anh used it to buy USDT on the Binance exchange from an unidentified party and transferred it to the wallet of the “USDR” entity. Anh kept 700,000 VND and spent the remainder on personal expenses.
After investigators uncovered the fraud, on April 23, 2025, Mr. Nguyen Minh Tr went to the police to report the incident.
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