Hanoi electronic firm general director arrested for appropriating $2.5 mln from 8,000 customers

Hanoi police detained Nguyen Van Hoanh on Wednesday, general director of electronic equipment producer HP102 Vietnam JSC, on charges of "fraudulent appropriation of property."

According to the police, Hoanh, born in 1975, purchased advertising equipment for customers to lease to HP102 Vietnam for business operations.

Hoanh used mass media and organized seminars to promote his company’s image and call on more than 8,000 customers to sign investment contracts with more than 40,000 advertising devices. However, in fact, he bought only 800 televisions and installed software to run ads.

Notably, although the financial statements showed that in 2018, 2019 and 2020, HP102 Vietnam suffered losses, Hoanh created trust among customers by paying advertising equipment rentals according to the agreements, using the next person's money to pay the previous one. As a result, customers invested more.

The police determined that customers had transferred nearly VND60 billion ($2.47 million) to Hoanh's personal accounts in 2019 and 2020 for purchasing advertising equipment to lease to HP102 Vietnam.

However, Hoanh did not buy advertising equipment as agreed, but used the money to invest in foreign exchange (forex) and for personal purposes. The money customers channeled into Hoanh's personal account was collected and spent by Hoanh himself and not declared in the company’s financial statements.

At the Hanoi police’s investigative agency, Hoanh confessed to all of his crimes. He admitted that seeing advertising business ineffective, he used a portion of his customers' money to invest in forex.