Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh, commonly known by his nickname Shark Binh, has just been prosecuted and detained by the Hanoi Police Investigation Agency on two serious charges: “Fraudulent appropriation of property” and “Violating accounting regulations causing serious consequences”.
The event took place on October 10, 2025, after a lengthy investigation into the AntEx cryptocurrency project, which was heavily promoted throughout 2021–2022 as a potential “Make in Vietnam” blockchain platform. In addition to Shark Binh, nine other individuals were also prosecuted for the same crime, revealing the complexity of the case.
According to investigative sources, the search of the headquarters of NextTech Company - the corporation founded and Vai by Shark Binh - took place tensely for many days. Starting from October 2, many police officers appeared at building No. 18 Tam Trinh Street, Vinh Tuy Ward, Hanoi to collect evidence. Late in the evening of October 7, dozens of boxes of documents, servers and data storage devices were sealed and taken away by truck. The next day, the police continued to work with NextTech representatives to clarify accounting and cash flow issues related to AntEx.
The story began to gain more attention when, at a press conference in early October, Colonel Nguyen Duc Longing, Deputy Director of Hanoi Police, confirmed that the unit had received complaints from people about the AntEx virtual currency project. An investor in Ninh Binh reported losing 2,000 USD (about 47 million VND) after Capital in the AntEx platform with the expectation of profiting from internal Token transactions.
From a personal reflection, the investigation agency expanded the verification, and initially identified many signs of financial violations and lack of transparency in Capital mobilization and cash flow management of AntEx, leading to the latest litigation decisions.
In the technology world, Shark Binh was once XEM a symbol of Vietnamese entrepreneurial spirit, prominent through investment TV shows. He is also known as a pioneer in digitizing small and medium-sized enterprises with the e-commerce ecosystem of NextTech Group. However, the AntEx scandal could become a major "breaking point" in the career of the businessman once known as the "Vietnamese technology tycoon".
Notably, according to many blockchain experts, AntEx once attracted tens of thousands of investors thanks to its strong marketing campaign, attractive profit commitments and the slogan "bringing Vietnamese technology to the world". But after 2023, the project began to "evaporate" from the market, the website officially stopped working, and the Token lost its value to almost 0.
Some investors are now calling for refunds, while the online community is Chia into two opinions: one side believes that Shark Binh was accidentally caught up in the uncontrolled blockchain vortex, the other side asserts that there are signs of organized fraud.
Source: VnExpress
