Police in Vietnam’s northern province of Phu Tho have arrested and initiated legal proceedings against four people for appropriating assets from Shopee Company Limited, the operator of the Shopee e-commerce platform, which is the biggest of its kind in the country.
In a Tuesday announcement, Phu Tho police named the four as Luu Thanh Luan, born 1998; Tan Anh Hiep, 1998; Le Van Hieu, 1984; and Duong Van Chinh, 1996. They were charged with “asset appropriation via electronic, telecommunications, computer network devices” per Article 290 of the Penal Code 2015.
They were found to have appropriated tens of billions of VND from their activities (VND1 billion is equivalent to $40,300), which involved cooperation among sellers, buyers, couriers, and seller affiliates on Shopee, Phu Tho police stressed.
The initial investigation began in November 2023 after the high-tech force of Phu Tho police detected groups fabricating ghost orders in the province. The suspects made massive orders which they paid for themselves, but then delivered the deals without the registered items (ghost orders) and registered the transactions as genuine. By colluding with couriers and buyers, the accused gained from vouchers and commissions offered in return by Shopee.
Phu Tho police force emphasized the case negatively impacted the Shopee platform, genuine buyers, and the growth of e-commerce in Vietnam. Further investigations are ongoing, the force added. Phu Tho police also warned citizens not to join suspicious groups on social media (such as Facebook, Zalo, and Telegram) in order to avoid colluding with criminals.
Data from Metric.vn, a local e-commerce data analyzer, shows that Shopee is the biggest e-commerce platform in Vietnam, accounting for nearly 74% of the revenues gained by biggest players of Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, and Tiktok Shop. Shopee is invested by Singapore-based Sea Limited.