On August 14, 2026, Dong Jian, a 40-year-old Chinese national, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison by the Ho Chi Minh City Court for his involvement in a fraudulent scheme to obtain a Vietnamese identity card and passport. The total amount spent by Dong Jian for this illegal endeavor was $7,414.

According to reports from VnExpress, five accomplices were also implicated in the case, three of whom were police officers named Nguyen Tuan Anh, Thai Thi Hang, and Pham Quang Doanh. Their sentences ranged from one and a half to four years and three months in prison.

The court proceedings revealed that Dong Jian entered Vietnam in 2021 and overstayed his visa until last year. During his time in Vietnam, he met Bui Thuy Ai and paid her $7,414 to facilitate the acquisition of Vietnamese documents that would allow him to remain in the country.

Bui Thuy Ai subsequently hired an unidentified individual to forge a birth certificate under the name Bui Van Hao for Dong Jian. Thai Thi Hang, who was working for the Ho Chi Minh City Police at the time, accepted a payment of 60 million VND (approximately $2,294) to process the identity card for Dong Jian.

Nguyen Tuan Anh assisted in finding someone to falsely update the national database with the information of Bui Van Hao. When suspicions arose regarding the identity of Bui Van Hao as a foreigner, Tuan Anh guided Ai on how to supplement the documentation.

Additionally, Ai hired someone to forge a medical certificate from a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, claiming that Bui Van Hao was treated for deafness. Pham Quang Doanh, a local police officer, was involved in updating the national database with the fraudulent information.

On June 25 of the previous year, Dong Jian was issued an identity card under the name Bui Van Hao. Following this, he and his accomplices proceeded to process the necessary paperwork for a Vietnamese passport.

However, on July 17, when Dong Jian attempted to use the passport under the name Bui Van Hao to leave for Malaysia at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi, authorities discovered the fraudulent documents. Dong Jian and his accomplices were subsequently arrested.

Due to the sensitive nature of the case, images of the defendants were not published in Vietnamese media.