Vietnam: Sanctions for virtual currency trading activities in a multi-level form

Vietnam: Sanctions for virtual currency trading activities in a multi-level form (Illustration)

Along with the birth and development of virtual currencies, financial investment and virtual currency trading floors were born and attracted many participants by paying bonuses and commissions for inviting more members. participate in investment in many levels and branches. This is a sign of illegal multi-level business.

Vietnam's Decree 40/2018/ND-CP stipulates that multi-level business activities can only be carried out with goods. All business activities by multi-level methods with non-commodities are prohibited. At the same time, digital information content products cannot be traded in a multi-level manner. In the current Vietnamese legal system, there is no legal document that recognizes virtual currency as a commodity. Therefore, the fact that financial investment floors conduct virtual currency business by multi-level method is not granted certificates of registration of multi-level business activities, and such business is illegal.

According to current regulations in Vietnam, for the purpose of attracting individuals and mobilizing participants to invest in these financial investment floors, organizations holding and operating these investment floors may be administratively sanctioned from 80,000,000 VND to 100,000,000 VND for the act of organizing business activities by multi-level marketing method without a certificate of registration for multi-level sales activities.

In addition, participants in mobilizing other people to participate in investment through these financial investment products may be prosecuted for criminal liability for "crime of violating regulations on business by multi-level method" under Article 217a of the current Vietnam's Criminal Code. If the person who organizes business activities by the multi-level method but does not have a certificate of registration for multi-level sales activities or does not conform to the contents of the certificate of registration for multi-level selling activities in one of the following cases: If they do not fall into the categories specified in Articles 174 and 290 of this code, they will face a fine ranging from 500,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 VND, non-custodial reform for up to three years, or a prison term ranging from six months to two years.five:

- Having been administratively sanctioned for this act or has been convicted for this crime; has not yet had his criminal record cleared but continues to commit it;

- Gaining illicit profits from 200,000,000 to under 1,000,000,000 VND;

- Causing damage to others from VND 500,000,000 to under VND 1,500,000,000.

At the same time, if the offender earns an illegal profit of 1,000,000,000 VND or more; causes damage to other people of 1,500,000,000 VND or more; or network size of 100 people or more, they shall be fined from VND 1,000,000,000 to VND 5,000,000,000; or imprisoned from 01 to 05 years. Offenders are also prohibited from undertaking or doing certain jobs for 1 to 5 years.

Bao Ngoc

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