Police bust massive bank account trading ring

Police have seized 650 bank cards and frozen more than 1,200 accounts across Vietnam that were traded for illegal transaction purposes.

Since mid-May, police in Nghe An province have coordinated with relevant agencies to arrest 10 people in provinces and cities across the country who joined a ring that “illegally collected, stored and traded information on bank accounts”.

Le The Trung, 37, and his accomplices were found guilty of having bought, borrowed and rented thousands of bank accounts, sold to criminal organizations abroad. Trung, residing in Cau Giay, Hanoi, was identified as the ringleader.

According to police, Trung established a construction company in Phu Tho province, near Hanoi, to cover up his transactions with a group of people abroad who rented or bought bank accounts to conduct illegal transactions.

Trung also managed a group who would visit provinces across the country daily to “collect” bank accounts.

Since 2020, the group had borrowed, rented and bought about 3,000 accounts from more than 600 people in localities like Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Phu Tho, and Hanoi.

Bank statements show that the amount of money transacted through each account was about VND50 billion ($2.16 million). Especially, one account showed a transaction worth up to VND400 billion.

The investigative agency said the money was mainly used for online gambling.