Life sentence for female "tycoon" of mountain town who swindled more than 400 people
(Baonghean.vn) - After mobilizing more than 20 billion VND in deposits from hundreds of people at high interest rates, Thao announced the dissolution of the company but did not post it for people to know and continued to mobilize capital from people until he was arrested.
The People’s Court of Nghe An province has just opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Nguyen Thi Thao (born in 1959, residing in Con Cuong town, Nghe An) for the crime of “Fraudulent appropriation of property”. The panel of judges spent 4 days to clarify Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao’s criminal behavior.
According to the indictment, in 1994, Hung Thao Private Enterprise was established, with Mr. Nguyen Phi Hung (born in 1956, residing in Con Cuong town, Con Cuong district, Nghe An) as the owner. This enterprise changed its business license for the third time with the business lines of buying and selling gold, silver, jewelry, handicrafts; buying and selling all kinds of motorbikes.
Although she does not have the function of raising capital and is not the owner of this enterprise, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao (born in 1959, Mr. Hung's wife) issued deposit slips, using the seal of Hung Thao Enterprise to stamp the deposit slips, making people mistakenly believe that she sent money to her.
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| Defendant Nguyen Thi Thao at the trial. Photo: NB |
Ms. Thao's illegal deposit mobilization activities (including cash, foreign currency and gold) were carried out from 2009 to October 2015. After receiving a large amount of deposits from people but being unable to repay the debt, Ms. Thao directed the company's accountant to draft a decision to dissolve the company and announce the dissolution on the grounds of business losses, inability to pay employees, customers, and arising expenses...
Ms. Thao sent the enterprise dissolution procedures to the Con Cuong District Tax Department but did not notify and post the decision and notice of enterprise dissolution at the local government and enterprise headquarters as prescribed, nor did she notify the people who had deposited money.
Despite the decision and announcement of the dissolution of the enterprise, from October 23, 2015, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao continued to mobilize capital and receive deposits from people. On May 9, 2016, Ms. Thao was arrested by Nghe An Provincial Police for gambling (later sentenced to 7 months in prison by the Con Cuong District People's Court, suspended). At this time, people just knew that Hung Thao Private Enterprise had dissolved and lost the ability to pay debts.
On December 23, 2016, Nguyen Thi Thao was arrested by Nghe An Provincial Police to clarify the act of fraud and property appropriation.
The investigation agency clarified that within just 7 months, Nguyen Thi Thao had defrauded 383 people, appropriating 24.8 billion VND. Nguyen Thi Thao's victims were mainly from Con Cuong (214 people), Anh Son, Do Luong, in which the least one person lost 6 million VND, the most up to more than half a billion VND.
Defendant Thao has paid back more than 2.3 billion VND in principal and 868 million VND in interest to the people. Therefore, Nguyen Thi Thao must be responsible for the 22.7 billion VND she appropriated.
Considering the case in its entirety, the People's Court of Nghe An province sentenced Nguyen Thi Thao to life in prison for "fraudulent appropriation of property", forcing the defendant to return all the money she had appropriated to the victims.
