Vietnam arrests three in fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme
Friday, July 20, 2018, 18:01 GMT+7
Vietnam’s police have arrested three leaders of a cryptocurrency company in Ho Chi Minh City for fraudulent appropriation of assets.
The company, initially registered as OTCMAX and then changed into VNCOINS, is headquartered in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
On Thursday, its chairman Nguyen Huu Tien, general director Pham Viet Son and information technology staff Nguyen Hong Quan were captured officers from the investigative and hi-tech units of the Ministry of Public Security, according to local Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper.
The arrest came after police searched the residence and workplace of the people involved.
According to the investigative agency, Tien founded OTCMAX in August 2016 and has since been its chairman, taking charge of all activities of the company.
OTCMAX had its name changed to VNCOINS JSC in September 2017.
Tien has held numerous marketing seminars, calling for investment on OTCMAX from members of the public, claiming the money would be channeled into several multimillion-dollar projects, while the company in fact did not perform any business activities.
In addition, OTCMAX also opened many workshops to attract investors to buy cryptocurrency using real money.
The OTCMAX virtual currency is a type of code ranging from nine to ten characters, which the company called ‘investment code,’ with par values from VND2.5 million (US$110) to VND250 million ($11,000) apiece.
Quan was the one who created these codes for Tien.
The company signed contracts of investment cooperation with buyers, pledging to pay a profit at a whopping interest rate of 1.8 percent per day for 90 consecutive working days.
From August to November 2016, OTCMAX signed such contracts with a total of more than 6,000 investors, earning over VND200 billion ($8.8 million).
The General Department of Police called on the victims, who bought these ‘investment codes,’ to provide documents and evidence to the investigative agency to protect their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law.
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