Vietnamese tycoon Truong My Lan's life sentence cut to 30 years
HANOI -- Judges in Vietnam on Monday reduced the life sentence of disgraced Vietnamese tycoon Truong My Lan to 30 years in prison on appeal.
Lan, former chairwoman of property developer Van Thinh Phat Group, was once one of Vietnam's richest people, owning prime assets across the country. She was arrested in 2022 and sentenced to death and life imprisonment in two separate trials for her financial crimes.
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Japan Today
20-05-2025
- Japan Today
U.S. judge says deportations to South Sudan likely violate court order
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno By Nate Raymond A federal judge said on Tuesday it appeared the Trump administration had violated a court order by deporting several migrants to South Sudan without ensuring they had a meaningful chance to raise any concerns they had for their safety. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston told a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice during a hastily arranged virtual hearing that the potential violation might constitute criminal contempt and he was weighing ordering a plane carrying the migrants to the African nation to turn around. The judge had previously barred the Trump administration from swiftly deporting migrants to countries other than their own without first hearing any concerns that they might be tortured or persecuted if sent there. Lawyers for a group of migrants pursuing a class action lawsuit on behalf of migrants before Murphy said they learned that nearly a dozen migrants held at a detention facility in Texas were flown to South Sudan on Tuesday morning. The migrants included an individual from Myanmar whose lawyer received an email on Monday from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official stating the agency's intent to deport his client to South Sudan. The migrant's lawyers said they learned their client had been flown to South Sudan on Tuesday morning. The spouse of a Vietnamese man who was also held at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas emailed his lawyer saying that he and 10 other individuals were believed to have been deported as well, the email filed as an exhibit showed. The group also included nationals of Laos, Thailand, Pakistan and Mexico, the spouse said in the email. "Please help! They cannot be allowed to do this." Lawyers for the migrants said conditions in South Sudan have long been dangerous even for locals. The United Nations has warned that the country's spiraling political crisis could reignite the brutal civil war that ended in 2018. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The department in February instructed immigration officers to review cases of people granted protections against being removed to their home countries to see if they could be re-detained and sent to a third country. Murphy, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, issued a preliminary injunction on April 18 designed to ensure the migrants were provided due process under the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment. The judge required the administration to provide written notice to migrants before removing them to a country not explicitly listed on their final orders of deportation and a "meaningful opportunity" to raise any fears for their safety if sent there. The judge said any migrants who officials deemed to have not demonstrated a reasonable fear must be given at least 15 days to seek to reopen immigration proceedings to challenge their deportation. Murphy has since further modified his injunction to guard against the possibility of DHS ceding control of migrants to other agencies to carry out rapid deportations, after the administration took the position that the U.S. Department of Defense was not covered by his orders. It made that argument after acknowledging the Defense Department flew four Venezuelans held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to El Salvador after Murphy's initial ruling. The judge said this month if the military similarly flew migrants to Libya, that would "clearly violate" his ruling. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Yomiuri Shimbun
18-05-2025
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Headaches and Cigarettes: Conviction of Pyongyang Spies Reveals Their Playbook of Codes, Signals
Shunpei Takeuchi / The Yomiuri Shimbun A statue in Hanoi, used as a place to rendezvous by North Korean spies, is seen on in January SEOUL — Last November, South Korea's Suwon District Court sentenced three men to between five and 15 years in prison for spying in South Korea under the instructions of the North Korean intelligence agency. They were members of a spy network formed secretly in South Korea. The Yomiuri Shimbun obtained details of the investigation and viewed the directives that were admitted as evidence in the ruling. Revealed were glimpses of the information warfare raging between the two countries. In August 2019, a man was standing at a 'meeting place' in Hanoi, carefully observing his surroundings. A month before, North Korea had sent a directive to the spy network inside its southern neighbor, instructing the man in how to confirm the identity of Pyongyang's agent using signs. 'Branch manager: Open a plastic water bottle and take a sip at 10 o'clock,' read the directive. 'Headquarters member: Once you have seen this gesture, wipe your sunglasses with a handkerchief several times at a spot seven to eight meters away from [the manager].' 'Headquarters' refers to the Cultural Exchange Bureau, or North Korea's intelligence agency, and 'branch manager' refers to the man who was waiting to meet someone in Hanoi. This man headed the spy ring in South Korea, and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison in November. The ringleader was set to meet an agent next to a statue by Hoan Kiem Lake, a popular tourist spot at the heart of the Vietnamese capital. Should they fail to link up there, a large supermarket nearby was designated as a backup location to meet an hour later. 'Check carefully,' the directive warned the spy leader, 'to see if you are being followed, during the entire time from when you are leaving the country [South Korea] until the meeting [after the rendezvous].' If he did notice someone was tailing him, the man was to use the codeword 'headache' to inform the intelligence agency via smartphone. 'If the headquarters member lights a cigarette while showing you the way, that's a signal that you are being followed. Move away from the member, find the pursuer and throw him off the track,' the directive said. However, investigators at the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) were keeping tabs on the spy leader after he arrived in Vietnam and the North Korean agent, starting two days before the pair's rendezvous. The investigators photographed the two walking around near the statue and keeping a lookout. They also took photos of another network member meeting with a North Korean agent the following day. According to the ruling, members of the South Korean spy network and North Korean agents also met in Phnom Penh in September 2017 and in Guangzhou, China's Guangdong Province, in September 2018. A photo presented at court showed the ringleader getting into a tuk-tuk with a North Korean agent in Phnom Penh. The man in his 50s who led the spy network was a senior member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of South Korea's largest labor unions, and was able to supervise the union's affiliated organizations. He was also charged with violating the National Security Law for collecting information on U.S. military bases. At the trial, a former North Korean spy who had been caught on duty in South Korea testified about Pyongyang's agent photographed in Cambodia. 'We were in the same group. I lived with this man for 24 hours a day,' the ex-spy said. 'He is an agent who received the title of Hero of the Republic. He has lost a lot of hair and put on a bit of weight [in this picture].' The ruling allowed such testimony and photographs as evidence, and said the covert meetings overseas were conducted in order 'to receive specific instructions from North Korea and discuss ways to carry out their aim.' The trial revealed 102 messages between the North and the spy network, with 89 from Pyongyang and 13 from the network. These included instructions to incite anti-Japanese acts over Japan's decision in April 2021 to release treated water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Signals in YouTube comments Kazuki Koike / The Yomiuri Shimbun People gather in front of the Suwon District Court in South Korea on Nov. 6 ahead of a ruling on three men who were subsequently given prison time for espionage. The North Korean spy agency sent its instructions to the South Korean network online using steganography, a method of encryption in which data is hidden inside images or messages. Besides emails, they also made use of the comments section on YouTube. 'If you post a pseudonym or text that includes 'Tommy Hall' in the YouTube comments, we will understand that you can go on a trip and will prepare for it.' This instruction from North Korea in August 2022 was asking a spy in South Korea if it was possible for him to take a trip, in other words to make contact, and it came with a YouTube link attached. The spy was to use the codeword 'Tommy Hall' in the comments if it was possible, or 'uphill road' if it was not. It's believed YouTube was used as a way to quickly respond to questions from North Korea. 'North Korea makes use of everything, including social media and cutting-edge technology,' said a former North Korean agent. After conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, who took a tough stance on Pyongyang, was elected president of South Korea in March 2022, the North Korean agency called for increased vigilance. A directive issued immediately after the election ordered: 'The public security authorities are likely to become more active. Don't leave any physical evidence. USBs should be physically destroyed and burned.' The evidence from the ruling showed that South Korea's NIS had been aware of the spies' activities since at least September 2017, and it likely surveilled their movements for over five years, up to January 2023. The last directive from North Korea that was used as evidence was dated December 2022, a month before authorities raided the South Korean network for engaging in espionage. The message showed concern about a delay in reports from South Korea: 'It's been over two months since we heard from you. We are worried and frustrated, and we miss you. 'You could have sent a short text saying you're fine and describing the situation you're in now. I haven't forgotten the days we spent talking, grasping each other's hands firmly and embracing each other warmly, sharing the love of family.' At this point, South Korea's investigative authorities seemed to have already tightened the noose around the spy network.
Asahi Shimbun
15-05-2025
- Asahi Shimbun
5 busted in mass cigarette buying scheme at Tokyo Kabukicho store
The Metropolitan Police Department confiscates about 20,000 boxes of cigarettes in the incident at a convenience store in the Kabukicho district of Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. The photo was taken on May 15. (Noriki Nishioka) Four Vietnamese men and women and a Japanese owner of a convenience store were arrested on suspicion of illegally purchasing cigarettes through stolen credit cards, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department announced on May 15. The four Vietnamese in their 20s are said to repeatedly have bought cigarettes by illegally using other people's credit card information at a convenience store, which store owner Mitsuyoshi Ugajin, 50, operates. It is not known if the suspects have admitted to the allegations. According to the MPD's Financial Intelligence Center, the five suspects, in a conspiracy with other people, bought a total of 2,823 boxes of heated tobacco products worth 1.6 million yen ($11,200) by using Apple Pay, an electronic smartphone payment service. The account, which was linked to other people's credit card information, was used from Nov. 8 to Nov. 10, 2024, at the Lawson Kabukicho 2 Chome West store in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. It is likely that the credit card information has been stolen through a phishing scam, which lures credit card users into entering their PIN numbers on fake company websites. OFFLINE PAYMENT SYSTEM UTILIZED According to police, the Vietnamese suspects maliciously took advantage of an 'offline payment' system, which doesn't require verification from credit card companies under a specific amount. At the time, 10,000 yen was the set limit for the illegally used credit cards, so the Vietnamese repeatedly bought 17 boxes of cigarettes at 580 yen each, keeping each purchase under the limit at 9,860 yen. The MPD believes that the group purchased cigarettes worth about 100 million yen for resale from May through November last year at the same store. Similar incidents of criminal groups illegally using stolen credit card information and buying a large amount of tobacco products at convenience stores have occurred in succession across the country. ENTERING CASH REGISTER AND BACKROOM The convenience store owner is accused of facilitating the illegal purchases by providing his store as the venue for the transactions. According to investigative sources, the arrested Vietnamese suspects had access to the cash register and took cigarettes from the back storeroom to purchase large quantities. They reportedly stayed in the store for about three hours at midnight. Whenever they illegally bought the cigarettes, the store owner was said to be present. 'The store cooperated in carrying out the crimes, resulting in such abnormal purchases,' the investigative sources said. The MPD is investigating how the store owner became part of the conspiracy. An expert warns that, 'Each convenience store chain operating company needs to strengthen control over its stores' to prevent these illegal transactions. Yoshikazu Kimura, a professor at Aichi University whose expertise is in the convenience store industry, said, 'It is possible for the headquarters of convenience store franchises to spot these abnormal purchases.' He said that each company has headquarters that monitor sales data from its stores, including the amounts, times and dates. 'Each headquarters has no choice but to severely supervise its stores to prevent illegal purchases,' Kimura said. NEED FOR DETECTION SYSTEM Tomomi Nagai, a chief analyst at Toray Corporate Business Research Inc., who examines business trends in the industry, said, 'The headquarters should consider introducing detection systems to identify abnormalities such as purchases of large amounts within a short period by using artificial intelligence or other methods.' Convenience stores have recently been recognized as locations for crime prevention, offering immediate assistance before fraudulent acts occur and providing a safe refuge for women and children. 'At a time when compliance is required, these incidents will create a negative image of convenience stores. The industry as a whole needs to take measures, such as strengthening identity verification at the register,' Kimura said. In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, a Lawson public relations department staffer said, 'We take this matter seriously and deeply apologize. We will thoroughly cooperate with the police investigation and try hard to prevent a recurrence.' The staffer added that the company's headquarters can keep track of large purchases of products. "We are consulting with the police depending on the situation,' the staffer added. (This article was written by Arata Mitsui and Noriki Nishioka.)
