Nghe An police continue to arrest the ringleader in the ancient statue fraud ring.

Accordingly, during the investigation, the Investigation Committee identified two ringleaders of the ring that sold ancient statues of Saint Joseph, Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Grace... to people, dignitaries, and officials at churches and parishes in many provinces and cities across the country: Vo Van Kien (born in 1990), residing in Gia Loc ward, Trang Bang town, and Nguyen Chi Tam (born in 1991), residing in Suoi Da commune, Duong Minh Chau district, Tay Ninh province.

Determined to quickly arrest the subjects, the Task Force sent working groups to Tay Ninh province to verify, however, the arrest of the subjects encountered many difficulties. However, with the spirit of determination to attack the crime to the end, at the end of May 2024, in Trang Bang town, Tay Ninh province, Nghi Loc district police presided over, coordinated with the professional department of Nghe An provincial police, Trang Bang town police and Duong Minh Chau district police (Tay Ninh province) to arrest the subject Vo Van Kien for fraud and property appropriation; seized: 9 bronze statues, 3 mobile phones and many other related evidences.

At the police station, Vo Van Kien confessed that from the beginning of 2024 until the time of his arrest, Kien and Nguyen Chi Tam discussed and agreed to buy bronze statues for prices ranging from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 VND, self-made additional letters and numbers "24-12-1728"; "GOLD 14K" to disguise the origin of the statues as "antiques", made of gold and silver with high prices; then went to parishes and churches to fraudulently resell them for prices ranging from 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 VND/statue.

Using the above methods and tricks, the subjects went to many provinces and cities such as Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Hue, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City... to find parishes, chapels, and religious centers of Catholicism to defraud and appropriate property, the amount of money appropriated from many victims was about 2 billion VND. In particular, the subject admitted to having committed a fraud to appropriate 177 million VND of property from a resident in Nghi Loc district in mid-April 2024.

Expanding the investigation, after a period of persistently applying synchronous professional measures, on October 18, 2024, Nghi Loc District Police deployed forces, coordinated with Duong Minh Chau District Police (Tay Ninh Province) to successfully arrest the remaining subject in the ring of fraud and sale of ancient statues of Saint Joseph, Our Lady of the Rosary, and Our Lady of Grace, Nguyen Chi Tam. At the Police Station, through the struggle, Nguyen Chi Tam confessed and admitted all of his crimes.

Currently, the Investigation Police Agency of Nghi Loc District Police has prosecuted and issued an arrest warrant for Nguyen Chi Tam for temporary detention for fraud and property appropriation.