Life sentence for man in his 50s who impersonated a wealthy overseas Vietnamese and stole 12 billion VND from a Vinh City tycoon.
(Baonghean.vn) - At the trial, Dao Thi Mong Thuong (residing in Dong Thap province) still maintained that the money was merely "love fees," and not obtained through fraud by the defendant.
On the morning of May 10th, after a lengthy deliberation process, the People's Court of Nghe An province sentenced the defendant Dao Thi Mong Thuong (born in 1978), residing in Vinh Thoi commune, Lai Vung district, Dong Thap province, to life imprisonment for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".
According to the records, in mid-August 2019, Thuong joined a group on social media and became acquainted with Mr. NVH (from Vinh City, Nghe An province). At that time, Mr. H. was a business owner in the construction sector and was living separately from his wife.
Seeing that this man was wealthy and kind, Thuong planned to seize his assets through a "romantic scam." During their texting, Thuong introduced herself as Dao Ngoc Minh, 25 years old, a Canadian citizen.
On Ngoc Minh's Facebook page, Thuong posted edited photos of herself from her younger days, along with some online photos showing her checking in at famous places and using luxury designer items, to make Mr. H. think that Ngoc Minh's family was well-off.
Thuong usually starts by "attacking" to gain the trust of the other party. When she saw that Mr. H. often did charity work, Thuong pretended to be busy and couldn't go along, then asked for his bank account number and transferred 50 million VND to him to help unfortunate people.
Impressed by the beautiful young woman with a kind heart, the wealthy businessman gradually developed feelings for her. As his "prey" fell into his trap, Thuong created multiple Facebook accounts, posing as a relative of Ngoc Minh to confide in Mr. H. To avoid suspicion, in the early stages of their relationship, Thuong didn't mention money, only talking about life and feelings...
After about six months, when he felt their love had "matured," Thuong began planning to seize his lover's assets. Initially, the woman lied, saying she wanted to borrow billions of dong to invest in a project, claiming that although her parents were well-off, she didn't want to ask for their help because she wanted to be independent. At first, Mr. H. seemed suspicious and refused to lend the money. But after Thuong's repeated persuasion, he finally agreed.
Furthermore, Thuong repeatedly used the excuse that Ngoc Minh needed money to complete inheritance procedures, with the intention of tricking Mr. H. into transferring money to Ngoc Minh through accounts provided by Thuong, thereby misappropriating the funds. Based on this pretext, Mr. H. transferred money to Thuong seven times, totaling 883 million VND.
Furthermore, Thuong also impersonated Ngoc Minh, claiming she was traveling to Italy and Hong Kong and desperately needed money to process her paperwork for a trip to Canada. Mr. H. transferred money to Ngoc Minh through Thuong 20 times, totaling nearly 4.9 billion VND.
Between September 19, 2019, and April 27, 2022, Dao Thi Mong Thuong used various pretexts to commit fraud and embezzle assets totaling nearly 12.3 billion VND.
At the first-instance trial, Thuong did not admit to the charge of fraud and misappropriation of property, claiming that the money was "love money" given proactively by Mr. H. According to the defendant, he and Mr. H. knew each other, had met many times, and traveled together, contrary to the victim's claim that they were strangers.
Thuong often presented evidence in the form of text messages Mr. H. sent during money transfer transactions, containing phrases like "to, gift Ngoc Minh, to, gift Mong Thuong, to, gift my beloved wife, gift..." to prove that Mr. H.'s money transfers were voluntary. However, authorities proved that these transfer details were recorded by Mr. H. at Thuong's request. This was a tactic used by Thuong to prevent Mr. H. from reporting the fraud.
The trial panel determined that because the defendant did not admit to his actions, he was not entitled to any mitigating circumstances. Based on the investigation results and assessment of the circumstances related to the case, the trial panel sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property," and ordered the defendant to compensate the victim with more than 5.2 billion VND (after deducting the amount already repaid).
