Vietnam police announced Monday that they had arrested 21 persons allegedly involved in a money-laundering operation that transported $78.5 million in illegal currency between the Southeast Asian country and neighbouring Cambodia.
The detainees, all Vietnamese from southern Dong Nai province and several northern areas, were apprehended in mid-February, Dong Nai police stated in an online statement on Monday, February 24, 2025.
The gang, which had a female ringleader, had “transferred money amounting to 2,000 billion dong ($78.5 million) for gambling and online fraud for a cross-border organisation headquartered in Cambodia” since July 2024, police said.
According to the police, they established 30 organisations and 150 business bank accounts to transfer and legalise money earned through fraud or gambling.
In January, Vietnamese police detained five persons and busted a similar cross-border money laundering conspiracy totalling $1.2 billion (30,000 billion dong).
Truong My Lan, a Vietnamese property billionaire, was sentenced to life in prison for money laundering in October, but she is appealing the decision.
In a separate instance, the property developer was sentenced to death for $27 billion worth of fraud.
