On Friday, October 30, the trial of Pho Duc Nam, known under the pseudonym Mr. Pips, and other defendants in the fraud case continued in Vietnam. During questioning, Nam told the court that a Turkish citizen named Isik Uran stood behind the entire fraudulent scheme.
According to Nam, in 2018 he travelled to Turkey, where Uran trained him to operate trading platforms. Back in Vietnam, Nam organised the operation of several platforms for trading on the stock exchange and the forex market. At the trial, the defendant admitted that no real trading took place on these platforms. Instead, clients placed bets against the organisers, and when investors lost money, it went to the people running the scheme.
Nam told the court that although the company's offices were in Vietnam, its key departments, responsible for information technology, system administration and finance, were located in Turkey under the direct management of Isik Uran. Nam himself and his two assistants, Le Khac Ngo and Bui Trung Duc, according to him, did not receive all of the revenue but only between 3 and 5 percent of the profits after operating expenses were deducted.
The defendant also described a "secret advisory group" that helped him avoid trouble with the law. Since forex trading is not licensed in Vietnam, Nam asked Nguyen Thanh Phong, his girlfriend's brother, to find out whether the activity could be legalised. Phong introduced him to former police officer Pham Truong Thanh and lawyer Nguyen Ba Thanh. Nam consulted them on how to evade claims from losing clients and what to do if employees were summoned to the police.
According to Nam, the decision to create such a group was made by Isik Uran, to whom he reported the situation. Nam paid the advisers a total of more than 6.4 billion dong for their services. The other members of the group, testifying in court, said they had not known about the fraudulent nature of Nam's activities.
I'm not crazy enough to tell the police about my activities. I paid them to maintain the relationships.
— Pho Duc Nam, defendant
Letters