Ngân 98 built a slimming empire on fake food; it collapsed with her arrest

Ngân 98 — Võ Thị Ngọc Ngân — was one of Vietnam's most followed DJs and social-media personalities, famous less for her music than for controversy. She put that following to work on her own business: ZuBu Company, registered under her mother's name, and the ZuBu shop, which sold weight-loss supplements — Super Detox X3, X7 and X1000 — over Facebook, TikTok and hotlines. According to Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security, she personally directed the business and took its profits.

From 2021, the Ministry says, ZuBu bundled its licensed products with an unlicensed one: 'viên rau củ Collagen' pills labeled 'hàng tặng kèm, không bán' — a gift with purchase, not for sale. The label was a dodge; the pills were sold as the required second half of a slimming course. Forensic testing found the products fake, carrying sibutramine and phenolphthalein — banned substances linked to cardiovascular damage and cancer risk. Delivery data put 2023–2024 revenue alone at hundreds of billions of dong, with money routed through relatives' accounts.

A July 2024 inspection found the violations — and according to police, Ngân and her partner, the musician Lương Bằng Quang, paid 8 billion dong to a fixer, Lê Sỹ Cường, so nothing would happen. It did not, until 13 October 2025, when Ho Chi Minh City police prosecuted and detained Ngân for manufacturing and trading fake food under Article 193 of the penal code. On 23 October all three were charged over the bribe. Searches seized dozens of land-title certificates and other assets; on 8 November the Ministry of Public Security reported the case at the government press conference.