Leading a fraud ring, the older brother sent his two younger siblings to prison.
Thang, Tuan, and Ha are three brothers. These three individuals were involved in a fraud ring, forging and using fake documents of agencies and organizations, and illegally buying and selling bank account information, and have paid the price for their criminal actions.
Sophisticated scam tactics
Nguyen Tat Thang (36 years old), Nguyen Van Tuan (34 years old), and Nguyen Minh Ha (32 years old), residing in Tam Quang commune, Tuong Duong district, are three brothers. After finishing high school, all three found separate jobs to make a living. However, since the beginning of 2023, the three brothers Thang, Tuan, and Ha have been involved in a fraud ring, forging and using fake documents of organizations and agencies, and illegally buying and selling bank account information.
Specifically, around the beginning of 2023, Thang learned about a bank's gift voucher program for new payment accounts opened through its digital banking app. According to the program, customers who referred relatives or friends to open payment accounts through this method would receive a voucher. To qualify for this offer, both the account holder and the referrer had to make at least one payment transaction, such as paying for electricity, water, or phone bills.
Nguyen Tat Thang conceived the idea of falsifying customer information to create fake bank accounts to introduce to customers, thereby defrauding the bank. To carry out this act, Thang learned how to create fake accounts online by using blank citizen identification card (CCCD) images downloaded from the internet.
Subsequently, this individual used facial editing technology to deceive the bank's identification system and successfully open a payment account. Simultaneously, they used apps to create fake phones and edit their faces to bypass the bank's account verification process.
Thang did not commit this fraud alone; he hired his younger brother, Nguyen Minh Ha, and instructed him on the aforementioned methods to alter the citizen identification cards in order to create fake bank accounts. Investigators determined that Ha helped his brother create 31 fake citizen identification cards. From these, Thang created 117 fake bank accounts.
Subsequently, Nguyen Tat Thang hired Le Van Thang (24 years old, residing in Thua Thien Hue) to use referral codes from his bank account and then use the vouchers to pay for electricity and water bills, thereby defrauding the bank of over 17 million VND.
During the performance review process, the bank discovered many accounts opened in a short period of time, and some accounts had been used fraudulently to steal bank vouchers. Therefore, they sent a request to the police to investigate. Following the investigation, Thang and Ha were arrested by the police on December 28, 2023.
In addition, Nguyen Tat Thang hired his second younger brother, Nguyen Van Tuan, to forge 1,740 citizen identification cards and identity cards, which enabled him to open 527 accounts at another major bank. Thang paid his brother nearly 39 million VND for his services.
In addition, Thang hired Phung Anh Tuan (34 years old, residing in Thua Thien Hue - a relative of Thang) to forge 1,195 citizen identification cards and identity cards, then open 1,036 bank accounts. Thang paid Tuan 40 million VND as payment.
After obtaining 2,232 bank account details through an intermediary, La Xuan Thien (27 years old, residing in Thanh Hoa province), Tat Thang, along with Pham Do Anh Tuan (36 years old, residing in Gia Lai province), resold them to Hoang Thai Bao (28 years old, residing in Thai Nguyen province) for 50,000 VND per account/phone SIM card.
The investigating agency determined that the total amount of money the suspects earned from selling bank account information was over 111 million VND. Of this amount, Nguyen Tat Thang illegally profited over 99 million VND, Bao illegally profited 22 million VND, Anh Tuan illegally profited over 6.7 million VND, and Thien illegally profited 1.3 million VND.
Three brothers were imprisoned together.
For the above actions, Nguyen Tat Thang was prosecuted and tried simultaneously on four charges: Fraudulent appropriation of property; Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations; Use of forged documents of agencies and organizations; and Illegally buying and selling bank account information. His two younger brothers, Nguyen Van Tuan and Nguyen Minh Ha, were prosecuted for Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations. Defendant Phung Anh Tuan was also prosecuted for the same crime.
Defendants Hoang Thai Bao, Pham Do Anh Tuan, and La Xuan Thien were tried for illegally buying and selling bank account information. Le Van Thang was tried separately for fraud and misappropriation of property.
At the recent trial, the defendants confessed that they committed the crimes out of greed. Defendant Nguyen Tat Thang admitted to learning how to forge documents and then buying and selling bank accounts on social media. Seeing that this was an easy way to make money, he instructed his younger brothers to participate. Thang paid his two brothers and the hired accomplices.
Defendants Tuan and Ha admitted that they actively carried out the assigned tasks out of greed for the money they were paid. The defendants expressed remorse for their criminal actions. Defendant Nguyen Tat Thang asked the court to consider mitigating his sentence and that of his two younger brothers.
The defendant expressed remorse for his greed, which had dragged his two younger siblings into legal trouble. He explained his difficult family circumstances: his mother had passed away, and three of his four siblings were already in legal trouble and now had to stand trial.
The panel of judges noted that in this case, defendants Tat Thang, Van Tuan, Anh Tuan, and Minh Ha all had aggravating circumstances, having committed the crime two or more times. However, mitigating circumstances should also be considered for the defendants, such as: during the investigation, prosecution, and trial, the defendants honestly confessed and showed remorse. Defendant Le Van Thang committed the crime for the first time and it was a less serious offense, so his sentence was reduced. Defendants La Xuan Thien and Pham Do Anh Tuan surrendered after committing the crime, so they were also granted mitigating circumstances…
After considering the role of each defendant in the case, the panel of judges sentenced Nguyen Tat Thang to a total of 10 years in prison for the four charges. For the crime of forging documents of agencies and organizations, the court sentenced Nguyen Van Tuan to 40 months in prison; defendants Nguyen Minh Ha and Phung Anh Tuan each received 39 months in prison.
For the crime of illegally trading bank account information, the court sentenced Hoang Thai Bao to 39 months in prison, Pham Do Anh Tuan to 30 months in prison, and La Xuan Thien to 24 months in prison. Defendant Le Van Thang was sentenced to 6 months in prison but given a suspended sentence for the crime of fraud and appropriation of property.
Driven by greed, the three brothers, Tat Thang, Tuan, and Ha, ended up in prison. Before leaving the courtroom, they only had time to turn back and see the weary figure of their father… This is not only a lesson for the three defendants and their accomplices, but for anyone who, driven by greed and a desire for money at all costs, will sooner or later pay a heavy price!
