Investigators found that to carry out their schemes the suspects had formed a total of 250 companies, directly or through third parties, and opened more than 100 fraudulent bank accounts which they used for criminal activities.

According to the VN Express news service, earlier this month police received reports that a company in Ukraine had been swindled by a criminal group into transferring money to certain bank accounts in Ho Chi Minh City.

The criminals tricked foreign entities into giving them money which they would then transfer to others set up in Vietnam, posing as partners of the swindled companies.

In tracing the money flow, police discovered that the money was transferred several times before being withdrawn and taken to Cambodia.

The investigators discovered that the network was a foreign group cooperating with Vietnamese collaborators and after determining their identities and exact locations, 13 nationals, including two Nigerians, were arrested.

Two raids conducted as part of the operation resulted in the seizure of nine billion VND (about $355,000) and $1.5 million in cash, along with other foreign currencies.

mh/arm/mem/mp