Leading the fraud ring, the older brother took his two younger siblings to prison.

Sophisticated fraud

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 their own jobs to make a living. But since the beginning of 2023, the three brothers Thang, Tuan and Ha have participated in a fraud ring, forging and using fake documents of organizations and agencies and illegally buying and selling information about bank accounts.

Specifically, around the beginning of 2023, Thang learned that a bank was implementing a gift program (voucher) applicable to new payment accounts opened through digital banking applications. Accordingly, customers using this bank's services when introducing relatives and friends to open payment accounts in the above form, the person opening the new bank account and the referrer will both receive a voucher. To enjoy this incentive package, the new account opener and the referrer must make at least 1 payment transaction such as electricity, water, phone bill payment, etc.

Nguyen Tat Thang had the idea of ​​falsifying customer information to create fake bank accounts to introduce customers, thereby appropriating money from the bank. To carry out this act, Thang learned how to create fake accounts online by using citizen identification card (CCCD) blanks downloaded online.

Then, this subject uses facial editing technology to make it look similar, fooling the bank's recognition system to successfully open a payment account. At the same time, through applications to simulate phones and edit faces to fool the account verification step of banks.

Thang did not commit this fraud alone, but hired his younger brother, Nguyen Minh Ha, and instructed him on the above methods to edit the ID card to fake bank accounts. The investigation agency determined that Ha helped his brother fake 31 ID cards. From there, Thang himself faked 117 bank accounts.

Then, Nguyen Tat Thang hired Le Van Thang (24 years old, residing in Thua Thien Hue) to use the referral code from the bank account and then used the vouchers to pay for electricity, water, etc., thereby embezzling more than 17 million VND from this bank.

During the review and evaluation process, the bank discovered that many accounts had been opened in a short period of time and that some accounts had been fraudulently used to appropriate bank vouchers, so it sent a letter requesting the police to clarify. After the investigation, on December 28, 2023, Thang and Ha were arrested by the police.

In addition, Nguyen Tat Thang also hired his second younger brother, Nguyen Van Tuan, to forge 1,740 ID cards and open 527 accounts at another large bank. Thang paid his younger brother nearly 39 million VND.

In addition, Thang hired Phung Anh Tuan (34 years old, residing in Thua Thien Hue - a cousin of Thang) to forge 1,195 CCCDs and identity cards and then opened 1,036 bank accounts. Thang paid Tuan 40 million VND for the service.

After opening 2,232 bank account information, through the intermediary La Xuan Thien (27 years old, residing in Thanh Hoa province), Tat Thang, together with Pham Do Anh Tuan (36 years old, residing in Gia Lai province), sold them to Hoang Thai Bao (28 years old, residing in Thai Nguyen province), for 50 thousand VND/1 account/1 phone SIM card.

The investigation agency determined that the total amount of money the subjects sold bank account information for was more than 111 million VND. Of which, Nguyen Tat Thang illegally profited more than 99 million VND, Bao illegally profited 22 million VND, Anh Tuan profited more than 6.7 million VND, and Thien profited 1.3 million VND.

3 brothers in prison together

With the above actions, Nguyen Tat Thang was prosecuted and tried at the same time for 4 crimes including: Fraudulent appropriation of property; Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations; Using forged documents of agencies and organizations; Illegal trading of information about bank accounts. His two younger brothers, Nguyen Van Tuan and Nguyen Minh Ha, were prosecuted for Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations. The defendant Phung Anh Tuan was also charged with the same crime.

The defendants Hoang Thai Bao, Pham Do Anh Tuan, and La Xuan Thien were tried for the crime of illegally buying and selling bank account information. Le Van Thang was tried for the crime of fraud and appropriation of property.

At the recent trial, the defendants confessed that they committed the crime out of greed for illegal profits. Defendant Nguyen Tat Thang confessed that he learned how to forge documents and buy and sell bank accounts on social networks. Realizing that this method was easy to make money, the defendant instructed his younger brothers to join. Thang was the one who paid his two younger brothers and the hired subjects.

Defendants Tuan and Ha admitted that they actively carried out the assigned actions because they were greedy for the money he paid them. The defendants expressed remorse for their crimes. Defendant Nguyen Tat Thang asked the court to consider reducing the sentence for himself and his two younger brothers.

The defendant expressed remorse for his greed, which had led to his two younger siblings being involved in legal trouble. He explained that his family situation was difficult, his mother had passed away, and out of four siblings, three were involved in legal trouble and now had to appear in court.

The panel of judges determined that in this case, the defendants Tat Thang, Van Tuan, Anh Tuan and Minh Ha all had aggravating circumstances of committing the crime 2 times or more. However, it is also necessary to consider mitigating circumstances for the defendants such as: During the investigation, prosecution and at the trial, the defendants confessed honestly and repented. Defendant Le Van Thang committed the crime for the first time, which is a less serious case, so his sentence was reduced. The two defendants La Xuan Thien and Pham Do Anh Tuan turned themselves in after committing the crime, so they were given mitigating circumstances...

After considering the role of each defendant in the case, the panel sentenced Nguyen Tat Thang to a total of 10 years in prison for the four crimes. For the crime of Forging documents of agencies and organizations, the court sentenced Nguyen Van Tuan to 40 months in prison; The two defendants Nguyen Minh Ha and Phung Anh Tuan were both sentenced to 39 months in prison.

For the crime of illegally trading information about bank accounts, 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 Fraudulent appropriation of property.

Because of greed, the three brothers Tat Thang, Tuan, and Ha had to "take each other" to prison. Before leaving the court, all three only had time to turn their heads to look at the image of their father... This is not only a lesson for the three defendants and their accomplices, but for anyone who, because of greed and recklessness, makes money, sooner or later will have to pay a heavy price!