Lieutenant General Nguyen Thanh Tung, Director of the Hanoi Police Department, confirmed that Vietnamese authorities have coordinated with Philippine police to arrest Le Khac Ngo, known online as "Mr Hunter", along with several accomplices. Legal procedures are currently underway to extradite Ngo to Vietnam for prosecution.

According to the investigation, Ngo and Pho Duc Nam - also known as "Mr Pips" - were the main masterminds behind a massive fraud network specializing in financial scams.

“This is the first time Vietnam has successfully dismantled an entire high-tech cross-border fraud ring and recovered over 5 trillion VND (approximately 200 million USD),” said Lt. Gen. Tung.

Both ringleaders, Ngo and Nam, have now been apprehended. International law enforcement agencies have praised the operation, as many countries have struggled to tackle similar criminal networks.

A complex web of shell companies and fake trading platforms

Investigators revealed that since 2021, Ngo and Nam partnered with a Turkish national who operated an offshore office in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Together, they directed the creation of at least seven shell companies in Vietnam, mainly in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and various other provinces.

In Ho Chi Minh City, they set up a front company and expanded operations nationwide with 44 offices - 24 in Hanoi and 20 in other provinces.

Despite not being registered to operate in finance or securities, these shell companies actively recruited staff to carry out illegal forex and derivatives trading schemes.

The syndicate developed five English-language websites with professional interfaces to impersonate reputable international trading platforms. These fake platforms were directly connected to the group’s bank accounts and integrated with MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 - popular global financial trading apps.

To streamline operations, the criminals organized their team into specialized departments, including accounting, human resources, IT, sales, and customer service. Each unit operated independently while collaborating to lure victims through platforms like Zalo and Telegram.

“Eat profit first, burn accounts later”

Their method involved providing false information to convince victims to deposit funds into designated accounts. In the initial phase, victims were allowed to earn small "profits" and even make withdrawals - building trust.

Later, victims were persuaded to increase their investments. When accounts started showing losses or were wiped out, the scammers fed victims more false promises, urging them to deposit more to recover funds. Once the victims were financially drained, the group cut contact and disappeared with the money.

The peak of the investigation occurred on October 25, 2024, when Hanoi police coordinated with units from the Ministry of Public Security to arrest dozens of suspects across the country linked to this transnational scam network.

Tien Dung