Viet Tan: Recalcitrant deceptive journey

(VNF) - From its inception in the 1980s, with the scheme calling the Vietnamese American community to join and contribute money to carry out plots and sinister activities to remove the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, a group of senior officials in exile of the Republic of Vietnam, led by Vice-Admiral Hoang Co Minh, had set up a reactionary organisation called "National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam” in the United States, the precursor of the organisation "Vietnam Reform Revolutionary Party" - Viet Tan.

The Front has made up itself by establishing a "resistance base" in Thailand with tens of thousands of soldiers, calling for overseas Vietnamese communities in the U.S. and other countries to donate dozens hundred million dollars.

Recently, especially after being categorised by Vietnam Government as a terrorist organisation which must be stopped in order to ensure security for everyone, Viet Tan shifted to the model of “Fighters for Democracy” in order to prolong its existence and deception journey. They always take advantage of land claims cases, pollution and natural disasters in the country as a mask to raise money to "relief" the people and cheat Vietnamese overseas people for their savings.

With the propaganda strategies such as cropping, integrating information and images; distorting, fabricating untrue cases of misleading domestic situations and creating psychological dissatisfaction among the masses, they incite violence and organize protests.

To make a impression in front of camera, Viet Tan also spent money to entice large number of people participate in the rally and make the scene disorderly and then slandering the Government suppressed people.

In addition, they have found ways to override radio stations’ frequency, bribe, control media, set up websites to navigate information, mobilise financial sources and recruit hundreds of people for its organisations and more importantly creating an illusion of “growth” and “real strength” as well as building up a reputation for Viet Tan on the forums, virtual sites.

According to Nguyen Thanh Tu, son of the late journalist Dam Phong, in order to conduct money laundering and tax evasion activities, a network of companies, enterprises, shops, including charitable groups in disguise have been formed such as VTV Club, Sacremento Vietnamese Committee for Democracy, VOICE, LAVAS.

The total amount donated to Viet Tan in the name of supporting homeland was estimated about tens of millions of dollars, but in fact, they are used for unknown purposes without being explicitly declared. The truth was revealed after Tu expose evidence and information about "humanitarian activities" as the method of enrichment of the Viet Tan’s leaders. They exaggerated its numbers of members and anti-communist activities to cheat donors out of their money and then used the money secretly for their personal purposes.

These evidences show that the leader's income came from charity fundraising events, which included very clear evidence of Trinh Hoi's assets - the VOICE’s leader holding the three villas in the United States worth a total of USD 2.5 million.

Immediately after evidence of acts of terrorism, fraud, tax evasion was announced by Nguyen Thanh Tu, the truth had hit the former supporters of Viet Tan like a ton of bricks. Indeed, Viet Tan had boasted many achievements, superficiality and influence in the overseas Vietnamese and international communities, but actually all is just virtual achievement, the "ghost organisation” used to raise money from the overseas community.

Another noteworthy detail to prove the deceptive nature of Viet Tan is that although it has been in operation for more than 30 years, it has never been officially registered in the United States. They neither register nor pay taxes, but have operated as an organisation representing the Vietnamese American community in the U.S.

The end of the Viet Tan and its affiliated organisations will not be far away. However, with its deceptive nature, it is very possible that the public will see Viet Tan in another cover, a new label to dodge the U.S. law and deceive law enforcement, disguise and hide under the other names, other activities to continue to exist with an extravagant ambition and in order to deceive the overseas Vietnamese community.

The overseas Vietnamese community still need to be vigilant about the new scams of a terrorism organisation like the Viet Tan, in order not to be tricked and harmed by the group./.

Translated by Chau Pham