On October 14, Hanoi City Police officially informed about the prosecution of Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh, commonly known as Shark Binh, Chairman of NextTech Group, to investigate the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" related to the AntEx cryptocurrency project - one of the XEM cases in the blockchain field in Vietnam recently.
According to the initial investigation results, from August to December 2021, Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh and a number of associates initiated and developed the AntEx project - a "digital currency" that was widely promoted as a breakthrough financial technology platform. They also established the Next100 Blockchain Fund, introducing it as a Venture Capital with a commitment to invest 50 million USD in blockchain technology startups in Vietnam.
However, the reality shows that AntEx has not been assessed by the management agency, and there are signs of transaction manipulation to appropriate investors' money. The founding team issued up to 33.2 billion AntEx Token , calling on more than 30,000 investors to participate, collecting a huge amount of about 117 billion VND.
The notable point in this case is the application of blockchain transaction tracing technology - ChainTracer, developed by the Vietnam Blockchain and Digital Assets Association (VBA). This is the first time in Vietnam that an on-chain analysis tool has been used to support the police in the investigation of high-tech crimes.
According to VBA, the ChainTracer team analyzed and modeled the entire cash flow related to the AntEx project, helping to accurately identify Token movements between e-wallets, exchanges, and suspicious addresses. Mr. Tran Huyen Dinh, head of the ChainTracer project, said the team used AI algorithms combined with new generation on-chain analysis technology to isolate related wallet clusters, and coordinated with many domestic and foreign exchanges to identify the identity of the final beneficiary.
Mr. Dinh emphasized that thanks to the transparency and openness of blockchain, the money flow tracing, which happened more than 3 years ago, was still done accurately. This is a clear difference from traditional financial frauds, where transaction traces are often erased or hidden. However, he also admitted that the lack of cooperation from some international exchanges made the investigation process difficult.
