Tran Nhuan Gia, 52, also known as Wong Danny Gia, will be among eight defendants arraigned at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on Thursday for “trafficking persons under the age of 16.”
One of the defendants, a local woman named Tran Thi Cam Tu, 35, is also charged with “forging documents of an organization or agency.”
According to the indictment, Gia joined social media groups dedicated to child adoption, seeking women who were unable to care for their children and wanted to place them with new families.
He enlisted a man named Doan Le Quoc Huy to contact the mothers, negotiate arrangements, pay money in exchange for the children, and hire caregivers to look after them for a monthly salary of VND10 million (US$380).
Investigators determined that since 2023, he has taken custody of three children in this manner.
In one of the cases, in 2023, Gia agreed to pay VND40 million for a five-year-old boy from a financially struggling mother, but prosecutors said he only paid her VND13 million.
Through the same online groups, he was introduced by Tran Thi Cam Tu and Le Thi Dieu Lien to the mother of a newborn baby for whom he paid VND45 million, according to the investigation.
In 2024, he paid VND35 million, including brokerage, for a boy aged nearly two.
Suspect Tran Thi Cam Tu when arrested in a ring buying children to take to the U.S. Photo by police |
All the children were then kept in an apartment in HCMC’s District 10, now Dien Hong Ward, while paperwork was done for their eventual relocation to the U.S.
On May 22, 2024, the HCMC police received multiple tipoffs that Gia’s apartment had several children whose identities were unclear.
Officers visited the apartment and found the three children along with two caregivers. During questioning, Gia and Huy confessed to their scheme.
The investigation was subsequently expanded, leading police to summon Tu and several others to clarify their roles in what authorities described as a “child adoption brokerage network.”
Prosecutors said Tu’s group not only helped Gia secure the three children but also brokered the adoption of two other children by infertile couples for amounts VND35 million and VND45 million.
Alleged forged documents
According to prosecutors, Gia adopted all the children without following legal procedures governing foreign-related adoptions.
After taking custody of the children, he sought to legitimize their care and prepare immigration paperwork by obtaining forged birth certificates for the child born in 2018, listing himself as the father.
He paid Tu VND5 million to forge a DNA test result purporting a biological relationship between him and one of the children.
Prosecutors said he offered VND1 million for a forged birth certificate for the same child, but the case was uncovered before it was delivered.
The prosecution said the forged documents were intended to support future visa applications and immigration procedures to move the children to the United States.
Investigators said since the forged documents were never used to prove the children’s identities or origins, no charges were filed against Gia for that.
Authorities also found no grounds to prosecute two families who adopted children through Tu’s network because they later completed all legal adoption procedures in accordance with Vietnamese law.
The investigators said several other individuals suspected of producing forged documents have not yet been identified, and the cases would be pursued.
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