'Running a sentence' to… go to jail

Unemployed people have the ability to "run away from the sentence"

Although she has been compensated for all the money defrauded by Nguyen Van Huan, Ms. Tran Thi K. (residing in Dien Phu commune, Dien Chau district) still cannot explain why at that time she was so blind, trusting and then collecting money to send to Huan. She has never seen Huan come out of the police station or wear police uniform to meet him, but with just a few "tongue twisting" times, Huan made Ms. K. give him an amount of money up to hundreds of millions of dong to "run the case".

Nguyen Van Huan (born in 1982), residing in Nam Hung commune, Nam Dan district (Nghe An province), but always introduced himself as Huy, an officer of the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Provincial Police, promising to "run" the case at the most reasonable cost.

Around the beginning of November 2020, through social relationships, Huan learned that Mrs. Tran Thi K. was worried about her husband. Her husband was involved in a smuggling case and was the main suspect in the case of "Illegal transportation of goods across the border" and "Transportation of prohibited goods". Knowing that, Huan confided in Mrs. K. that he had a way to avoid criminal prosecution for his family members. Happy as if "finding a stake", Mrs. K. tried to get close to and ask for help from Huan.

Between December 2020 and January 2021, Huan asked Ms. K. to give him 260 million VND to "fix the case".

Ms. K. admitted that she is a cautious person who does not trust people easily, and does not easily give hundreds of millions of dong to a stranger. However, the label of a criminal police officer that Huan created for himself made the victim misunderstand and immediately listen to his "advice".

Nguyen Van Huan also divided the money into many times, each time with a different reason, causing the victim to lose vigilance and fall into the trap.

At the Criminal Investigation Agency, Huan confessed that he was not a police officer and had never worked in the police force. However, through many times working with the authorities to resolve the traffic accident, Nguyen Van Huan, as the car owner, knew Mr. Huy, an officer of the criminal department directly handling the case. So when talking to Ms. K, Nguyen Van Huan used Mr. Huy's name to introduce himself to everyone in case of identity verification.

Because he "bragged" that he was a criminal police officer, when asked to "help" a defendant avoid criminal prosecution for "Illegal transportation of goods across the border" and "Transportation of prohibited goods", Huan nodded.

The money was transferred, but after many months, Mrs. K's family still did not see any movement. Suspecting that Huan had deceived her, Mrs. K's family went to Huan's house to verify. At that time, Mrs. K was surprised to see Huan's family members surprised because they did not know when Huan had "become a police officer".

On February 22, 2021, Ms. K. filed a complaint against Nguyen Van Huan for fraud to the investigation agency. During the process of working with the Nghe An Provincial Police Department, Huan confessed to his crime and voluntarily handed over an additional 10 million VND.

Times of exchanging money to hide

Nguyen Van Huan was born into a farming family in Nam Hung commune, Nam Dan district. Although he is the eldest in a large family, Huan still tries his best to finish high school and then go to work to earn money to support his family. Having a chance to work in the transportation industry, Huan worked hard and established his own business. Huan once had a life that many people dream of: a family, with a stable economy as the owner of a small transportation business. The dream of overcoming poverty of the boy in the past has now come true. But then life's events happened, Huan became penniless.

Many relatives and neighbors who witnessed Huan's life still cannot explain why Huan ended up like this. Mr. Pham Ba P. (Nguyen Van Huan's neighbor) shared: Before, Huan was very gentle, sociable with neighbors, loved his wife and children, and had a stable economy. Just because of a failed business, he lost his job, but we did not expect that Huan would be so destitute that he would cheat another family like that.

On July 22, 2021, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Nguyen Van Huan for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". On the day of the trial, there was only one relative, sitting in the very last row of the spacious courtroom. It is known that his wife was working far away and could not be present.

Huan was prosecuted by the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province before the court for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". Regarding Ms. Tran Thi K., the investigation agency found that because Huan proactively asked her to give money, Huan himself was not the person with the position and authority to resolve the case that Ms. K. was asking to "run". After discovering Huan's fraudulent behavior, she filed a complaint with the police. Therefore, there was not enough basis to criminally prosecute Ms. Tran Thi K. for the crime of Bribery.

Asked about the reason for impersonating a police officer at the trial, Nguyen Van Huan replied: "The defendant did not know anyone who was a police officer, nor did he know anyone in the court or the prosecutor's office to influence. The defendant simply thought that he would take the defendant's family to see a lawyer, hire a lawyer to resolve the matter, and if the matter was successful, he would receive a commission."

Nguyen Van Huan confessed that he had gone to a law office in Vinh City to seek advice on the case. However, because the defendant was abroad, the lawyer did not accept the case because he could not work directly with this person. However, Huan still affirmed to the panel of judges that he had no intention of defrauding and appropriating money from the person who asked him to “run the case”.

It is worth mentioning that with the amount of money scammed of 260 million VND, Nguyen Van Huan divided it into many times. All 6 times receiving money from the victim's family, Nguyen Van Huan took the trouble to think of a scenario to receive the money, run the case,... Sometimes he "thanked the leader", sometimes he sent "thanks to the Procuracy", sometimes he "withdraw the decision",...

Questioning this issue, the jury asked: "If there was no intention of fraud, why did the defendant ask the victim to transfer money 6 times to take care of business, and each time the money was delivered and received, the location changed?"

Defendant Huan said he had discussed the matter with a law firm and was quoted 350 million VND. The reason Huan split the money into several payments was to relieve the pressure on his family from having to pay a large sum of money at once. As for changing the location of the money recipient, the defendant... could not explain.

All the times she received the money, Ms. K. gave it in denominations of 100,000 and 200,000 VND. But because she had no way to escape, Nguyen Van Huan took these hundreds of millions of VND to the grocery store and changed them into denominations of 500,000 VND and then... took them back to his rented room to keep.

When the defendant's family suspected that Huan was "bragging", Ms. K. asked Huan to return the money. At first, Huan only paid Ms. K. 70 million VND. But as soon as Ms. K. filed a complaint with the district police to denounce the fake police officer, Huan went to Ms. K.'s house to pay 190 million VND, but asked for 20 million VND for "gas expenses" and Ms. K.'s relatives agreed.

"The defendant is aware that his actions were wrong, not only violating the law but also insulting the honor and reputation of the police force, causing people to misunderstand law enforcement agencies. The defendant's family later returned the VND20 million spent on gas to the victim. In this case, the defendant did not benefit from a single penny. The defendant hopes to receive leniency from the law," Nguyen Van Huan said before the panel of judges.

Because Huan had recovered all the misappropriated money, the victim filed a petition for a reduced sentence for the defendant. Considering the entire case, the panel sentenced Nguyen Van Huan to 7 years in prison for the crime of “Fraudulent appropriation of property”.