'Land brokers' trap many people, lose billions

Fraudulent deposit for auction land purchase

The People's Court of Nghe An province has just opened a trial for defendants Le Thanh Hai (40 years old) and Le Kien Trung (44 years old), both residing in Vinh city, on charges of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Using fake documents of agencies and organizations"; defendant Tran Dien Thuong (47 years old), residing in Nghi Phu commune, Vinh city, on charges of "Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations".

The scams used by the subjects in this case are not new, but many people, because of the land fever, are willing to give hundreds of millions of dong, even billions of dong to the subjects. By the time they discover they have been scammed, it is too late. One of the tricks Hai and Trung used was to defraud people of deposits for land auctions to appropriate their money.

Specifically, through their connections, Hai and Trung obtained the auctioned land plan. When a customer wanted to buy the auctioned land, Trung introduced himself as the “backyard” of the bosses, so he could get the auctioned land, and asked for a deposit. However, when the customer did not win the auction, the subjects did not return the money.

One of the victims of this form of fraud is Mr. Nguyen Thai T. (38 years old), in Nghi Yen commune, Nghi Loc district. In early 2022, when he learned that Nghi Yen commune was about to auction off planned land, Mr. T. went to Trung's house for help. Trung introduced himself as working for a real estate company and promised to get the planned land for auction, requiring a deposit of 50 to 80 million VND per plot to reserve a spot. The total amount that Mr. T. transferred to Trung was more than 700 million VND to deposit 11 plots of land. However, after Mr. T. did not win any plot of land, Trung did not return the deposit as promised and cut off contact.

Using similar tricks, Trung and Hai defrauded and appropriated nearly 400 million VND from Mr. Pham Dung S. (52 years old), in Nghi Loc district. Mr. S. transferred money to Trung to hold 7 auctioned land lots in Nghi Yen commune. Trung promised to get these land lots at a price 20% higher than the starting price. To show that he was “playing fair”, Hai also told Trung “to celebrate 1 lot for Mr. S. without having to deposit money”.

On May 2, 2022, Trung and Hai made an appointment with Mr. S. and those who had deposited land in Nghi Yen commune to discuss before the land auction. Hai asked these people to deposit money into the Auction Board's account under Hai's name to commit to winning the bid, but no one agreed to this request. 3 days later, when the auction took place, Mr. S. participated in the land auction but did not win any lot, and requested a refund but was not given...

The investigation agency determined that through this form of fraud, Trung and Hai appropriated nearly 3.9 billion VND.

Hire fake land title to scam

In addition to “directing” the above drama, Trung and Hai also colluded with Tran Dien Thuong to commit fraud against many victims by receiving documents for land title transfer, land division, land use conversion, etc. In this form, Hai was the initiator and directly carried out the fraud.

Accordingly, Hai knew that Thuong had connections to fake documents, so he came up with the idea of ​​defrauding and appropriating property by receiving documents to transfer land titles, separate land plots, and change land use purposes for people in need. Hai directed and assigned his uncle's son, Le Kien Trung, to find people in need of land procedures to introduce to Hai. Along with that, Hai hired Thuong to make fake land titles to give to people and then receive money.

Because he was afraid to do the procedures, Mr. Dao Van T. in Vinh City was scammed by the subjects and 520 million VND was appropriated. Specifically, he had a plot of land of more than 1,100 m2 in Nghi Yen commune, Nghi Loc district, but did not have a red book, so he wanted to do the procedures to get a book. In early 2022, hearing that Trung was capable of doing the procedures to get a land book, Mr. T. asked him to make a red book. Trung told Mr. T. that he knew many leaders and had relatives working at the Nghe An Department of Natural Resources and Environment, so he promised to make a red book.

Trusting him, Mr. T. sent information and transferred money to Trung. Trung gave that information to Hai. Hai then hired Thuong to make a fake cover for that land plot. However, after discovering that the signature and seal on the fake red cover were faulty, Trung was afraid of being discovered and told Hai to return the money to the customer. However, because they had spent all the money, the subjects cut off contact and fled.

The investigation agency determined that, using the above tricks, from December 2021 to April 2022, the subjects appropriated 3.4 billion VND; combined with the land deposit fraud trick, the subjects appropriated nearly 7.3 billion VND from many victims.

Price

In this case, Hai and Trung, in addition to being defendants, are also cousins. From their close relationship, the two colluded and discussed with each other to commit many acts of fraud. In particular, Hai was the initiator and directly carried out many sophisticated acts of fraud. It is worth noting that Hai is a defendant with a bad personal history, having been sentenced to prison 5 times for the crimes of “Theft of property”, “Disturbing public order”, “Extortion of property”, “Illegal possession of narcotics”…

At the trial, the defendants stated that they had spent all the money they had appropriated from the victims and were currently unable to pay. The victims attending the trial requested that the defendants return all the money they had appropriated. In the presence of a large number of victims and people, the Trial Panel analyzed that, due to the fear of having to go back and forth many times to carry out administrative and legal procedures to make land titles, some people paid to hire services (also known as "brokers") to speed up these procedures. Many "brokers" claimed to know officials and employees of state agencies to ensure that administrative procedures on land were carried out quickly, in accordance with the needs of the people.

Because of trust, many people have paid tens, even hundreds of millions of dong for red books that are called "difficult to obtain", then handed over all the original land records and documents to them. After receiving the money, these subjects either do not perform the service or make fake covers to give to the people. The lucky ones get back the original land records, but some even lose the original records, causing great damage to property and time. Therefore, people need to be vigilant when doing administrative procedures related to land, to avoid unfortunate incidents and being deceived.

In this case, the defendants violated the property rights of others protected by law, violated the activities of state agencies, caused bad public opinion, and caused confusion in public opinion, so they need to be strictly punished. As the mastermind and initiator, defendant Le Thanh Hai was sentenced to 24 years in prison (including 20 years for "Fraudulent appropriation of property", 4 years for "Using fake documents of agencies and organizations"). Defendant Le Kien Trung was sentenced to 19 years in prison (16 years for "Fraudulent appropriation", 3 years for "Using fake documents"). Meanwhile, defendant Tran Dien Thuong was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison for "Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations".

Thus, the appropriate sentence has been given to the scammers. This is also a lesson for many people, not to be subjective, afraid to learn, and leave it to others to be deceived.