Police probe disappearance of company owner and $1.5 mln

An investor reports the case to police on Thursday
Police have arrested two executives of a Ho Chi Minh investment firm after allegations US$1.5 million was swindled from its clients.
Hong Kong national Ng Kwock Fai, owner of Tactics Investment Consulting Service Company Limited, allegedly fled last month with investors’ funds.
Police late Friday arrested the firm’s chief accountant, Tran Thuc Trinh, and director Tran Vy Quyen.
Despite only being licensed to operate an investment consulting and trade brokerage, the firm was using clients’ deposits for foreign currency trading over the Internet.
The firm had promised annual returns of 20 percent, investigators said.
The firm’s out-of-pocket clients said Tactics had claimed its parent company was the Canada-headquartered Richmark International Group.
Would-be clients were asked to deposit a minimum of $1,000 in exchange for a certificate in English acknowledging their contributions.
They were promised a second certificate, countersigned and stamped by Richmark, would be issued a week later.

Clients were to receive their returns three months after their initial deposits and begin receiving monthly interest from the fourth month.

But on Wednesday Trinh called investors to Tactics office in District 1’s Ton Duc Thang Street where she announced director Fai had absconded with their money.

Trinh said Fai went overseas on March 14 and every effort to contact him since had failed.

The police said although the firm had registered under the directorship of Quyen, the operation had been run by Fai and Trinh.

Asked why the firm was still accepting deposits from clients after Fai fled, Trinh said the firm had to do so to get the money to pay interest to its clients.

The police said Friday the firm, which has been operating in Vietnam since June 2006, was not licensed to provide financial services.

The police also said they seized many documents during a search of the firm’s offices on Thursday.

Further investigations were underway, police said.

Affected investors

Of the clients whose funds had vanished, T.T.Y. had made the biggest deposit of $267,000.

Since early this year, 47 clients had deposited $449,000 and had not received any returns.

All the investors who met at the firm’s office on Thursday said they were staggered to lose such a major amount of money.

The affected clients said they had been introduced to the company by friends and relatives.

Similar scam

Last year, Thanh Nien reported a seemingly similar scam in which a HCMC-based Hong Kong firm had allegedly faked documents and websites to cheat its clients of some $10 million.

Golden Rock International Limited (GRIL), despite not being licensed to conduct business for profit in Vietnam, hired more than 200 employees to recruit internet currency trading clients.

GRIL was promising monthly returns as high as 5 percent.

Clients were asked to deposit money and sign two contracts they were told would be sent to Switzerland to the Golden Portfolio Management Corporation, supposedly the parent company.

They would receive the two contracts, countersigned and stamped by that Swiss company, two weeks later.

After two GRIL bosses disappeared with $10 million in November 2006, an inspection by city trade authorities found the company had faked the Swiss company’s seal.

It had copied advertising documents and contracts from a different foreign company and launched bogus websites supposedly for currency and gold trading.

Two executives, Stanley Elliot Tan and financial director Cheng Kwok Ping Patric – who were not registered for their posts – absconded with the funds deposited by around 1,000 investors.