Vietnamese tech entrepreneur Nguyen Hoa Binh has been arrested and charged with large-scale and serious fraud tied to the AntEx digital asset project, according to the Hanoi Police Department.
The police confirmed on Tuesday that Binh faces criminal charges of fraudulent appropriation of property and violations of accounting regulations causing serious consequences. Nine other individuals connected to the case have also been indicted under the same charges.
On October 6, the Vietnamese police raided the headquarters of NextTech Group, founded by tech entrepreneur Nguyen Hoa Binh, widely known as “Shark Binh” (on Shark Tank Vietnam TV Show), as part of an investigation into the controversial cryptocurrency project AntEx.
The AntEx blockchain project, reportedly led by Binh—who is widely known in Vietnam’s startup ecosystem as “Shark Binh”—first came under police scrutiny on October 6, when the Ministry of Public Security disclosed that it had received a complaint from an investor claiming losses of around $2,000.
According to the Hanoi Police, Binh and his associates launched the AntEx digital currency project in May 2021, contributing a total of 5 billion dong ($200,000) in capital, of which Binh personally invested 2 billion dong.
The team issued 100 billion AntEx tokens, and between August and November 2021, sold 33.2 billion tokens to around 30,000 investors, raising about 4.5 million USDT ($4.5 million).
Later that year, Binh promoted AntEx under the Next100 Blockchain Fund, pledging an investment commitment of $50 million to boost investor confidence.
By March 2023, the project had gone largely dormant and rebranded as Rabbit (RAB), converting existing tokens at a ratio of 1,000 ANTEX to 1 RAB. The move, seen by industry observers as an effort to reset its trading history, failed to revive the project—with RAB’s price soon collapsing to near zero.
The project’s token, AntEx, quickly lost 99% in value after listing and later rebranded to Rabbit (RAB) in 2023, a move critics described as an attempt to “reset” the price chart, according to local media VnExpress.
Investigators now allege that the founders withdrew investor funds from 30,000 crypto wallets, misappropriating a “particularly large” amount of money.
Authorities have seized and frozen assets linked to Binh and his associates, including nearly 600 gold bars, 18 property ownership certificates, and two cars, with an estimated combined value of 900 billion dong ($36 million), local media reported.
Police widen probe into NextTech ecosystem
The Hanoi Police said the investigation is being expanded to examine potential legal and financial violations across NextTech Group’s extensive ecosystem.
Continuing to expand the investigation, the police discovered that in 2022, Binh directed the establishment of Nextland Real Estate Trading Joint Stock Company and then assigned employees to reduce profits and conceal revenue by lowering the selling price on sales contracts with customers, causing especially large losses to the state budget.
NextTech operates across four core business verticals: financial technology (including NganLuong.vn, mPOS, and VIMO); e-commerce and logistics (Boxme and NextSmartShip); O2O services and platforms; FastGo, a ride-hailing app; and a domestic fund supporting early-stage tech startups Next100.
Authorities have not yet disclosed details of the additional entities under scrutiny but confirmed that “further violations and mismanagement across related companies” are being reviewed as part of the broader probe.
In the NextTech ecosystem, the investigation agency believes that the payment gateway NganLuong.vn is also “very popular” so it will clarify the money transfer activities here, local media VnExpress reported.
NganLuong.vn was once honoured by Red Herring magazine (USA) in the Top 100 potential technology enterprises in Asia.
