Arrest of a gang forging seals and documents of state agencies

(Baonghean.vn) - On the afternoon of July 5, the Department of Investigation Police on Social Order Crimes of Nghe An Province Police decided to temporarily detain 6 subjects related to the case of forging documents and papers of State agencies and organizations.

Recently, in Vinh City, there have been a number of individuals using fake degrees and documents to operate and conduct transactions, affecting the operations of political organizations, state agencies and businesses. Based on information from a number of reliable witnesses, Nghe An Provincial Police have established a special project coded 612R to destroy the production and forgery of documents to maintain the strictness of the law.

After 2 weeks of surveillance and ambush, the suspects with signs of crime were in sight. At 4:00 p.m. on July 3, Team 2 of the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police caught Tran Hong Lam (born in 1942, temporarily residing in Block 14, Cua Nam Ward, Vinh City) red-handed forging documents and seals of a number of state agencies and organizations. The evidence seized on the spot included 24 round seals, 13 square seals, more than 100 seals engraved with the names of positions and 1,000 rubber letters used to assemble various diplomas, documents, and many transcripts, degrees from many universities, high schools and professional certificates... all of which were forged.

Through the investigation, the Investigation Agency arrested 4 more subjects: Tran Huy Chuong, born in 1964, residing in Block 5, Truong Thi Ward, Vinh City; Nguyen Cong Anh, born in 1978, residing in Van Trung Block, Hung Dung Ward, Vinh City; Ho Viet Hoang, born in 1982, residing in Cam Xuyen District, Ha Tinh Province and Nguyen Thanh Hai, born in 1950, Hung Tien Commune, Nam Dan District. By the end of the morning of July 5, 2012, the Investigation Agency continued to arrest another subject, Nguyen Thi Tam, born in 1965, residing in Le Loi Ward, Vinh City. Searching the residences of these subjects, the authorities seized many more documents, fake seals related to many state agencies and organizations, along with printing equipment, scanners and items used to forge documents and seals.

To facilitate the counterfeiting, two powerful collaborators, Nguyen Thi Tam, have a booth at 36 Phan Boi Chau and Ho Viet Hoang, who rents a kiosk in Trung Do ward to print and photocopy documents. In addition, there is a "decoy" named Nguyen Thanh Hai who guides those who need diplomas, certificates, etc.

The activities of this group are relatively sophisticated. To avoid the attention of the authorities, these subjects rent rooms far from residential areas or photocopy shops. Each person works independently, when necessary, they will support each other in forging seals and documents with a very strict process. The first step is to forge the blanks of fake diplomas and papers, then print them in black and white (screen printing, manual printing or computer printing depending on the type of document), then stamp them with fake stamps, forge signatures and then photocopy them in color.

In addition to forging diplomas and other professional documents and certificates, these subjects also produce medals, identity cards, household registration books, school records, medical records, poverty certificates, and even notarized land titles. These fake documents are made very sophisticatedly and are very difficult to detect with the naked eye.

According to the initial investigation results, the subject Tran Hong Lam was the one who directly conducted the transaction to find people in need and then hired the remaining subjects to produce. After having the "product", Tran Hong Lam was also the one who sold it. These fake papers and documents were not only sold in Vinh City and localities in Nghe An province but also expanded to Ha Tinh province and a large number of papers and degrees were circulated in Hanoi. The price depends on each type of paper, diploma and also "looks at the face" of the customer, but the lowest is a school report card for 500 thousand VND/book, all kinds of hospital discharge records from 1-2 million VND/set...



Two of the subjects were arrested.



Evidence of the case

Types of counterfeit seals

Preliminarily, the subjects confessed that the falsification of documents and papers of state agencies and organizations had been going on for the past 3 months, but at the present time, the subjects could not remember how many sets of fake documents, papers, diplomas, certificates, etc. had been circulated.

Initially, the subjects have temporarily paid about 20 million VND of illegal profits, the remaining amount of fake documents in circulation is being clarified. Currently, the subjects have been taken to Nghi Kim Detention Center for police investigation.

Ha Linh