Repentant…

(Baonghean) - Before the trial, Le Thi Hong Tiep sat alone on the defendant's chair. Not once did the audience see her turn her face down to the audience, perhaps she was afraid - afraid of everyone's reproachful eyes, afraid of facing the truth. At this time more than a year ago, Tiep was a nurse in a large hospital, a job that many people in society dream of.

But because of her immediate personal interests, she lost everything. Even the right to live freely like other ordinary citizens was gone. Now, she sat alone within the four white walls of the prison, tormented day and night.

Defendant Le Thi Hong Tiep.

The indictment of the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province stated that Le Thi Hong Tiep (born in 1984, residing in Hamlet 8, Nam Trung Commune, Nam Dan), was a former nurse at a private hospital in Vinh City. Due to gambling and needing money to pay off debts, Tiep created a "fake" drama to swindle money from many people who wanted to work abroad. At the end of August 2011, from her acquaintance with Ms. Nguyen Thi Luc (born in 1964, residing in Nam Tan Commune, Nam Dan) and knowing that her family wanted to send her husband and children to work abroad, she went to her and bragged that she had an aunt who worked for the Red Cross in France and was running a line to send people to work abroad from Vietnam to countries such as Australia, Korea, Japan, France and other countries in the world. Hearing that, Ms. Luc was secretly happy because she thought she had met a "noble person". Mrs. Luc gave Tiep 126 million VND to help her husband and children go to work in Korea without any suspicion.

After receiving the money from Mrs. Luc, seeing that it was easy to do business, Tiep "bragged" that he was looking to recruit more people to work abroad in many countries around the world. The procedure was simple, just needing a family register book and notarized photo ID along with an amount of 2,000 USD to 4,500 USD (depending on the country). Thi asked Mrs. Luc to help contact those in need. Hearing that, Mrs. Luc found 20 more people in need of working abroad and gave Tiep more than 2.4 billion VND.

After receiving a large sum of money from the victims, Tiep did not contact any agency or organization to complete procedures to send people to work abroad. She used all the money she appropriated from the victims to pay debts, gamble, and spend for personal expenses. As for the victims, after being tricked many times to go to Noi Bai Airport to wait for departure but failed, knowing that they had been tricked, they filed a complaint with the authorities to denounce Tiep's actions.

The courtroom that day attracted hundreds of people. They came here as victims. They were poor people, whose main income came from working for hire and a few acres of rice fields. Because they believed Tiep's sweet, ambiguous words, they were willing to hand over all their assets to her without a second thought or doubt. Only when everything was exposed and the true identity of the scammer was revealed did people begin to panic. In this case, Tiep took advantage of people's trust to defraud and appropriate billions of dong.

Standing in front of the bar, Le Thi Hong Tiep did not beat around the bush or make excuses but confessed all her actions. She confessed that because of her passion for gambling, she suffered heavy losses. To have money to gamble and recoup her capital, she borrowed money from everywhere. And when her debts piled up and she had nowhere to borrow money from, she staged a play to trick people who wanted to go abroad to work, took the money to pay off their debts and continued gambling. When she heard the representative of the Procuracy express her views and propose a sentence, she tried to reach out and hold onto the bar. She cried a lot because she thought of her young child. When she was arrested, the child had only babbled "mom". If, years ago, Tiep had known how to cherish his career and family, and knew how to stop at the right time, then perhaps now, she would not have to pay such a high price. She is only 30 years old, has a stable job, has a family, children... That is a life that many people dream of. Yet in just a moment, she had given up everything. Now, what Tiep received was nothing but tears of late regret and four lonely walls.

For the act of “fraudulent appropriation of property”, Le Thi Hong Tiep was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and was also ordered to compensate 21 victims with more than 2.4 billion VND. The trial ended with Le Thi Hong Tiep’s belated repentance and the heavy anxiety and insecurity of the victims. The amount of money that Tiep appropriated was not small, some people could never have it even if they worked their whole lives. This is also a cautionary lesson for those who put their trust in the wrong place.

Hoang Hai