HANOI (VNExpress International): Vietnamese wanted fugitive Le Khac Ngo, also known as Mr. Hunter, the suspected mastermind behind a VND5.3-trillion (US$208 million) fraud ring, has been arrested in the Philippines and will be extradited to Vietnam.
Lieutenant General Nguyen Thanh Tung, Director of the Hanoi Police Department, confirmed Friday that Ngo, 34, and several accomplices were captured through a coordinated operation between Hanoi police and Philippine law enforcement.
Hanoi police are now working with relevant agencies to finalize the extradition procedures.
This major arrest follows the capture of Ngo's wife, Ngo Thi Theu, who was apprehended in July through cooperation between Hanoi police and Interpol and subsequently brought back to Vietnam. The Hanoi police have branded the case as "the biggest foreign currency and stock fraud in Vietnam ever."
The sophisticated scheme was orchestrated by Ngo and Pho Duc Nam (better known as "Mr. Pips"), in collaboration with a Turkish national. Investigators determined that the trio launched the large-scale fraudulent trading scheme in 2021.
The operation began with the establishment of a front company that grew to include 44 offices across Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and various other provinces, employing a workforce of around 1,000 unlicensed staff.
The syndicate's key deceptive tactic involved creating multiple English-language websites with professional interfaces, making participants believe they were using reputable international forex trading platforms. In reality, these sites were fake trading floors, programmed and directly linked to bank accounts controlled by Nam's group.
The ring used popular trading apps like MT4 and MT5 to entice people to "invest in international stocks and forex," guaranteeing high, risk-free profits.
According to investigators, the sales employees, acting on Nam’s instructions, would lure customers by first allowing them to make small, profitable trades to build a foundation of trust. Once confidence was established, victims were persuaded to invest much larger sums.
When accounts inevitably showed losses, the group would urge the victims to deposit even more money on a second, equally deceptive platform under the guise of recovering their losses, leading to further financial ruin. The group allegedly defrauded over 2,660 victims through this fake platform, which served only to funnel investors' money into the suspects' accounts.
Police have so far received 669 complaints and taken statements from 601 victims, with reported losses from those individuals exceeding VND1.187 trillion.
They have seized assets connected to the case valued at VND5.3 trillion, including luxury cars and properties. Authorities are also expected to launch investigations into 550 sales employees who participated in the network.
Investigators noted that the primary factor in the victims' deception was the flashy, wealthy lifestyle portrayed by Nam and Ngo, which preyed on investors' desire to get rich quickly.
Mr. Pips (Nam) reportedly leveraged his technological knowledge and English skills to collaborate with foreign partners and aggressively marketed his extravagant life on social media, using images of luxury villas and high-end cars to attract potential investors.
"When people see my beautiful houses and luxurious cars they are persuaded to make investments," Nam reportedly confessed to police last year. -- VNExpress International
