Playing virtual currency at a loss, 'female monster' scammed, appropriated nearly 11 billion VND

On January 11, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened the first instance trial of defendant Nguyen Thi Van (born 1988), in Thanh Lien commune (Thanh Chuong), temporarily residing in Trung Do ward (Vinh city) for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property”.

Nguyen Thi Van is a freelancer who invested in virtual currency exchanges on the Internet and suffered losses. From there, Van came up with the idea of ​​defrauding and appropriating assets by transferring money to customers' accounts.

Defendant Nguyen Thi Van was sentenced to life in prison. Photo: Tran Vu

From June 2019 to August 2021, Van approached many victims, providing information that he had acquaintances with many customers who were in the motorbike, used car or freight business and had a need to transfer large amounts of money.

Van used 12 bank accounts of herself, friends and relatives to deceive customers into giving them money to Van to transfer money to customers. Van agreed with the victims to pay a service fee of 3,000 VND/1 million VND for the transferred amount.

After receiving the money, Van will return a portion of the principal and service fees to create trust with the victims, the remaining amount will be used to pay off debts and continue to invest in virtual currency but will suffer losses and be unable to pay.

The investigation agency determined that Nguyen Thi Van had committed 7 acts of fraud, appropriating nearly 11 billion VND. Of which, the victim who was defrauded the most money by Van was nearly 5 billion VND.

After appropriating the victims' money, Van used it to invest in virtual currency, pay back the principal and pay for services.

On August 4, 2021, fearing that creditors would demand money, Van turned off communication and fled her rented room in Vinh City. On November 1, 2021, Nguyen Thi Van went to the police to surrender, confessing to all acts of fraud and property appropriation.

At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crime. Van said that because he lost money investing in virtual currency, he committed fraud as charged in the indictment. The defendant said that he is currently unable to pay the victims.

The defendant apologized to the victims and asked the court to consider reducing his sentence so he could be released from prison soon and earn money to pay the victims.

The panel of judges determined that in this case the defendant committed many fraudulent acts, which was an aggravating circumstance, and therefore sentenced Nguyen Thi Van to life in prison. Regarding the civil case, the court ordered the defendant to return the money to the victims.