Vietnamese police will investigate Liberty Reserve-related laundering activities by a local company when obtaining evidence of such an offence from their foreign counterparts, said an official at the Ministry of Public Security. Senior Lieutenant Colonel Ho Sy Niem, head of Division 9 of the ministry’s Social Order Crime Investigation Police Department, made the statement when he mentioned illegal virtual currency trading activities by Thinh Vu Joint Stock Company, which is located in northern Hai Phong City. Whether the company has committed money laundering will be clarified after the ministry receives related evidence from the US and Turkish police, Niem said, adding that the ministry is waiting for feedback from their foreign counterparts. Thinh Vu was founded by Vu Van Lang, a 30-year-old man from Hai Phong, in 2008. According to its license, the company operates as a sub-agent for the Hai Phong Branch of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam to pay overseas remittances to beneficiaries in Vietnam through the Western Union, Niem said. However, Thinh Vu illegally carried out online currency exchange transactions related to the global virtual currency exchange Liberty Reserve (LR), which is favored by cybercriminals, to enjoy price differences. Though he didn’t have a license in online currency  exchange, Lang carried out more than 42,500 electronic money deals worth more than US$24 million and pocketed over VND5 billion ($ 240,400) from 2008 to 2011, according to investigators. Lang bought LR from people both in Vietnam and abroad who are members of online currency exchange websites, and then sold such LR to foreigners to earn the difference. All of these deals were made through the Internet. These illegal transactions were discovered after Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security received requests from Turkish police and the US Embassy in Cambodia asking for help in uncovering a ring that was stealing computer data to conduct extortion scams.

The Hai Phong police have referred the case file to the municipal People’s Court for trial. In related developments, the US Treasury on May 29 charged Liberty Reserve, a global currency exchange, a US$6 billion money-laundering scheme, international media said. The federal prosecutors in New York also imposed the same charge on Liberty Reserve. They said that many law enforcement officials consider the case to be the largest online money-laundering case in history. Yesterday, May 31, several Vietnamese banks that have been alleged to have business relations with the Liberty Reserve rejected the allegation. These banks include the DongA Joint Stock Commercial Bank (DongA Bank), the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), and the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB).