Crime

By Joe Fotalattee

Thien Giang Provincial Police criminally detained several subjects on February 13 for misappropriating property, using weapons, loan sharking, and illegal sand mining.

Dang Hoang Vu, also known as Vu Tinh, was born in 1971 and resides permanently at Tran Hung Dao Street in My Tho City, Tien Giang. He is a member of an alleged loan-shark gang in Chau Thanh district.
Additional suspects Nguyen Van Vui, also known as Vui Ba Dang, born in 1985, resides in My Tho city, Pham Thanh Hien, also known as Cu Den born in 1994, resides in My Thanh Nam commune, and Cai Lay district and Tran Thanh Tuan, also known as Tuan Bo, born in 1978, resides in Phu Kie.

The Tien Giang Provincial Police had previously discovered the group controlling the area displaying evidence of protection, debt collection, property expropriation, illegal sand mining, theft, and using weapons in Tien Giang, Tra Vinh, and Ben Tre provinces.

by Joe Fotalattee

Vietnam+ is reporting Vo Van Hung was apprehended while threatening and extorting money from Ms. S (a Vietnamese American immigrant born in 1978). Hung had taken and threatened to share explicit digital photos and video. Hung was reported to be being held in a temporary detention facility by the Go Vap District Police in Ho Chi Minh City on the evening of February 2.

Initial research indicates that Hung became acquainted with Ms. S through social media sometime in October 2020 by chatting with Ms. S on Zalo and Facebook.
Hung demanded money from his mistress in a “hot” clip he threatened to release.

During this time, Hung and Ms. S. sensitively chatted on video with each other. During these times, Hung covertly recorded all of their private video chats.
Due to a lack of funds by around December 2021, Hung sent Ms. S. “Sexy” images of Ms. S. to ask Ms. S. to send money to Hung. When Ms. S. refused, Hung threatened to send pictures of Ms. S to her friends and shared them on social media as a form of intimidation.

Ms. S. was apprehensive about “hot” pictures and videos on social media and sharing them with her friends, so she sent Hung money many times. Hung tricked Ms. S into transferring more than 100 times and took more than 1.4 billion VND (16,000 USD). Hung inquired of Ms. S on February 1 to travel back to Vietnam and deliver 30,000,000 VND.

Hung arrived in Ho Chi Minh City by way of Quang Tri at around 6 o’clock on the same day, having scheduled a meeting with Ms. Dot S. at a cafe in Ward 10 of Ho Chi Minh City’s Go Vap District on Phan Van Tri Street. The Go Vap District Police … Read more

Opinion by Joe Fotalattee

Washington’s legal crackdown on cryptocurrencies was long overdue, and the SEC on Friday, January 15, 2023 accused some of the biggest names in the industry of running an unauthorized lending service that caused significant losses for clients.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Genesis Global Capital, a cryptocurrency lender, and Gemini, a former business partner, of selling unregistered securities through Gemini Earn. Genesis is a division of the Barry Silbert-founded Digital Currency Group, while Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who are both billionaires, run Gemini.

The companies are charged with using the success of Gemini Earn, which guaranteed investors a return of up to 8%, to raise billions. The issue: According to the SEC, they broke securities laws by disregarding “disclosure requirements intended to protect investors.”

The SEC claims that 340,000 Earn customers have a $900 million loss. Injunctive relief, civil penalties, and restitution for “ill-gotten gains” are demanded in the complaint.

Additional writing on the wall for the crypto bust is Crypto.com also announcing on Friday that 20% of its staff would be laid off. The crypto exchange grew “ambitiously,” according to CEO Kris Marszalek, but was unable to withstand the demise of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire FTX, he wrote in a blog post.

Losing a job is better than losing your life savings. With Vietnamese media companies pushing pump-and-dump schemes on their unsuspecting readers, one wonders what billionaires in Vietnam are behind the positive spin of Crypto, which has been proven to be riddled with fraud and lacking intrinsic value.

Vietnam appears to lack any “disclosure requirements intended to protect investors” and the government should step in with regulations to prevent the loss of millions, and the media should not be creating a new financial crisis to benefit the billionaires.