The Hanoi People's Court opened a trial of 12 defendants involved in a case of smuggling and illegal cross-border currency transfer.
Among them, Tran The Manh (born 1982, residing in Hanoi) was prosecuted for smuggling, illegal cross-border transportation of currency, and counterfeiting documents of organizations. His elder sister, Tran Thi Nga (born 1977, residing in Hanoi), was prosecuted for counterfeiting documents of organizations and smuggling.
According to the indictment, between 2018 and 2023, Manh established or had relatives front as legal representatives for seven companies. These individuals handed over company seals and authorized signatures for Manh to manage. Manh and Nga then used these corporate entities to illegally transfer currency to China.
The ring operated by receiving beneficiary details and the corresponding amount in Vietnamese currency (VND) for the foreign currency clients wished to transfer abroad. Manh hired an accountant to sign and legitimize transfer dossiers, payment documents, foreign currency purchase contracts, and wire transfer orders before submitting them to commercial banks.
In total, Manh opened 21 personal bank accounts across 21 domestic commercial banks to receive funds from clients wishing to transfer money overseas. He also opened corporate checking accounts for five of the companies across 29 domestic banks to execute international payments.
After opening these accounts, Manh created Zalo chat groups with staff at each bank as well as an accounting team. Every day, bank employees posted USD exchange rates in these groups, allowing him to choose the bank offering the most favorable rate to purchase USD.
The indictment further revealed that the funds slated for China were directed to numerous distinct accounts per client requests.
To facilitate this, Manh instructed his staff to draft and fabricate addenda to foreign trade contracts and tripartite agreements to insert beneficiary accounts into the documentation. The defendants printed and inserted forged seals of the Chinese beneficiary companies onto the contracts to legitimize the files.
Once the banks approved the paperwork, Manh transferred funds into the corresponding corporate accounts to buy foreign currency and wire it abroad under the guise of paying for import contracts from China.
For each successful transaction, Manh pocketed a fee ranging between 0.04% and 0.08%.
The prosecution emphasized that Manh was well aware that domestic banks lacked an interconnected verification system to cross-check whether import contracts and customs declarations had already been paid through other banks. Furthermore, the total sum required for transfer (exceeding VND12 trillion or nealy $462 million) far surpassed the actual declared value of imported goods declared by the companies (around VND900 billion or $34.6 million).
Consequently, Manh directed his staff to recycle already-settled customs declarations to fabricate payment dossiers and illicitly wire funds to China across multiple commercial banks.
Through this scheme, Manh's ring cleared procedures, falsified records, and executed 3,270 transfer orders to wire over $519 million to China. From these operations, Mạnh personally netted over VND5.2 billion ($200,000) in illicit gains.
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