Photo by Nick Youngson via Wikipedia Commons
Ho Chi Minh City police arrested a U.S. citizen of Vietnamese origin, Joshua Dung-Huu, for swindling over VND18 billion ($706,159) by falsely claiming he could rescue seized fishing vessels.
According to VNExpress, authorities detained Joshua after multiple victims reported his fraudulent activities. He had opened several companies across Ho Chi Minh City and other southern provinces under different names while personally controlling the operations.
In October 2020, three people sought Joshua’s help after Indonesian authorities confiscated their nine fishing vessels. He assured them he had business connections in Indonesia and could negotiate their return for VND1 billion ($39,000) per vessel. The victims transferred more than VND9.4 billion ($370,000), but Joshua never secured the boats.
Between 2019 and 2020, he also scammed a Ho Chi Minh City company by promising to connect them with a Singaporean gasoline supplier, collecting over VND6.8 billion ($270,000). Additionally, he convinced a local woman to lend him money for business purposes but never repaid the VND2 billion ($78,700).
Investigators are currently gathering more evidence to determine the full extent of the fraud, as reported by MSN News.
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