The court determined that the former deputy director of Center 1 under the Cyber Security Department, upon learning that the suspect's phone contained a cryptocurrency account, instructed subordinates to seize the funds, sell the account, and then Chia the proceeds.
On May 4th, the Appellate Court of the Supreme People's Court in Hanoi heard the appeal in the case of abuse of power and authority to appropriate property involving three former officials of the Center for Development and Recovery of Electronic Data and Evidence under the Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention and Control Department, Ministry of Public Security (Center 1, A05).
The initial trial determined that Duong Tuan Anh was the Deputy Director of Center 1, while Nguyen Huy Loi, 39, and Nguyen Ngoc Hoang, 37, were his subordinates. In 2021, they were assigned to coordinate with the Criminal Police Department to investigate a case involving organized gambling and online gambling occurring in Hanoi and other localities.
During the process of checking and extracting data from the phones of the two individuals involved, Tuan Anh, Loi, and Hoang were found to have misappropriated their cryptocurrency.
Specifically, on October 29, 2021, Loi was given a suspect's mobile phone by an investigator from the Criminal Police Department. Check, recover, and extract data.
During the investigation, Loi discovered that the suspect's Binance account contained 530,132 USDT, equivalent to over 12 billion VND, and 500.9 C98 tokens, equivalent to 40 million VND at that time.
On January 19, 2024, Loi sold 207,845 USDT for 5.1 billion VND. He also exchanged a portion of the 500.9 C98 cryptocurrency for other cryptocurrencies, storing it in a Cold Storage. Since Loi deleted this Cold Storage , the exact quantity and types of cryptocurrency could not be traced.
At the first-instance trial, defendant Loi admitted to the aforementioned crimes, stating that he had used the profits for personal expenses and invested them in cryptocurrency. His family has fully compensated for the damages. Similarly, defendant Hoang, upon receiving a suspect's phone, discovered a Binance account containing nearly 200,000 USDT, equivalent to 4.6 billion VND. Hoang reported this to Deputy Director Tuan Anh and was instructed to misappropriate the cryptocurrency, the first-instance verdict stated.
Following Tuan Anh's instructions, Hoang illegally accessed Ha's account, converted USDT to obtain 3.2619 Bitcoin, and transferred it to Tuan Anh's cryptocurrency wallet on Binance.
On the evening of January 29, 2021, Hoang went to Tuan Anh's office, and the two agreed to Chia the cryptocurrency. Afterward, Tuan Anh converted the Bitcoin to USDT and BUSD , then to Vietnamese Dong, and Chia Hoang 300 million VND and 70,376 USDT, equivalent to 1.6 billion VND. Hoang then continued to use the money to trade cryptocurrencies but lost it all.
Tuan Anh absconded during the investigation and is still wanted; his involvement in the case has been separated. The first-instance court sentenced Loi to 9 years and Hoang to 7 years in prison for abusing their positions and authority to misappropriate property . At today's appeal hearing for a reduced sentence, Loi presented new evidence, resulting in a 2-year reduction, leaving him with 7 years in prison. Hoang did not appeal.
