Spectacular scam of gold shop lady in mountainous district of Nghe An

Fall into the trap of "high interest"

Around June 2016, Con Cuong District Police received hundreds of complaints against Nguyen Thi Thao (born in 1959), residing in Con Cuong District Town, for fraud and property appropriation. It is worth mentioning that at that time, Thao had just received a 7-month suspended sentence for gambling. It is known that in May 2016, when the authorities were dismantling a gambling ring, recording lottery numbers for football betting across provinces, they discovered Thao as a ringleader in this ring.

Hearing that Ms. Thao was imprisoned, hundreds of people filed a petition with the district police accusing Ms. Thao of engaging in “black credit” activities, appropriating tens of billions of dong. Based on documents collected at the end of 2016, the authorities initiated a criminal case and detained Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao, who was identified as the main perpetrator of the crime.CheatThe list of victims at that time was up to more than 380 people, most of whom were residents of Con Cuong district and some neighboring districts.

According to the subject’s initial statement, since 2009, Ms. Thao has received “contributed capital” from hundreds of local residents with the promise of paying interest of 1,000 VND/1 million VND/month. At first, after receiving the full interest payment, many residents called on their relatives to contribute money.

A typical example is Ms. NTT (residing in Con Cuong town) - one of hundreds of victims - who "contributed capital" to Ms. Thao's business. At the urging of her neighbor, Ms. NTT gave 200 million VND, the capital she had saved from many years of selling goods, to deposit to "make a profit". 6 years have passed, Ms. NTT still keeps the red-stamped book of Hung Thao gold shop with the profit details, but the actual amount received is only 60 million VND.

After not being paid the interest for a period of time due to the reason of increased interest rates, so the money had to be recalculated, Ms. NTT came to ask and realized that Ms. Thao had just received a suspended sentence for gambling. Panicked, she contacted her neighbors who had contributed capital, only to find out that everyone had been promised the same thing, Ms. NTT sadly filed a report with the police.

Similar to the case of Mr. LVT (Chi Khe commune, Con Cuong district) like other victims, just because he trusted Ms. Thao too much, Mr. T. "gave his eggs to the devil". "After saving and saving, my wife and I were able to get 65 million VND. We observed that many people sent money, and when needed, we could take it immediately, which was very convenient. We also thought that there was a State seal issued to the enterprise, so I discussed with my wife to send it to Ms. Thao, so we could get interest and save it for old age and illness. My sister saw him sending it and also collected all the money in the house, 75 million VND, to send it... I didn't expect this to happen", Mr. T. shared.

Those are just 2 of nearly 400 victims that Ms. Thao had to "swallow the bitter pill" because of her "gullibility".

Dissolution still… raising capital!

Hung Thao Private Enterprise is owned by Mr. Nguyen Phi Hung (born in 1956), Nguyen Thi Thao's husband. The enterprise specializes in trading in gold, silver, jewelry, handicrafts, and motorbikes of all kinds. Although she knew that her enterprise did not have the function of mobilizing savings deposits, Ms. Thao herself, as the wife, issued deposit slips and used the enterprise's red seal to stamp the deposit slips, to create trust, making people mistakenly believe that the capital mobilization was for the enterprise's gold, silver, and motorbike business.

Due to the long-term process of mobilizing deposits from people (from 2009 to October 2015), with a large amount, and the inability to repay the debt, on October 23, 2015, Nguyen Thi Thao directed the company's accountant to draft a decision to dissolve the company on the grounds that the company was operating at a loss and was unable to pay the expenses incurred by the Con Cuong District Tax Department, but did not notify and post the dissolution decision at the headquarters, nor did she notify the people who came to deposit money.

Through the investigation, the investigation agency determined that Thao had defrauded 383 people, appropriating 24.8 billion VND. Of which, Thao had paid back more than 2.3 billion VND in principal and 868 million VND in interest to the people.

Considered a wealthy gold and silver "tycoon" in the western mountainous town of Nghe An province, Thao also owns one of the largest motorbike shops in the area. With her reputation and her family's huge assets, despite the decision to dissolve the business, Thao still tried to mobilize capital to receive deposits from people in large quantities. After receiving deposits from people, Thao used them for family and personal expenses, and up to now, Thao is completely unable to pay back the money to the victims. Then suddenly, the "tycoon" of the mountainous town was unexpectedly arrested for gambling and at the same time announced bankruptcy, causing hundreds of people to suffer.

143 victims simultaneously filed an appeal.

At the first instance trial held on March 9, 2018, during the interrogation, Nguyen Thi Thao stated that the money transfer was voluntary, and that when people deposited money in Thao's place, they would be paid interest of VND 1,000/VND 1 million/month. When asked about the large amount of money raised from the victims, Thao calmly said that she had "played a gamble" and had no more money to pay the victims. The first instance court sentenced the defendant Thao to life in prison for fraud and ordered her to compensate the victims with VND 21.6 billion.

The above first instance judgment was not appealed, but 143 victims simultaneously filed an appeal to the appellate court, requesting clarification of the role and responsibility of defendant Thao's husband and children in the fraud case. The victims also requested that Thao consider signs of dissipating assets to her daughter, requesting the authorities to recover the assets to return to the victims. In addition, victim X. also appealed, requesting Thao to compensate an additional 9999 gold bars.

From the early morning of April 25, 2019, hundreds of people who were victims in the case took buses and motorbikes 130 km from the mountainous district to Vinh City to attend the appeal hearing. Among the 383 victims, hundreds were poor households in the mountainous area of ​​Nghe An. Some people had sold buffaloes, cows, chickens, pigs, borrowed money from banks... because they trusted Thao "the tycoon" and then were tricked out of all their money, causing their families to suffer even more hardship.

At the appeal hearing, after each question from the panel of judges, defendant Nguyen Thi Thao answered evasively with a nonchalant attitude. Defendant Nguyen Thi Thao insisted on her innocence, claiming that the money was currently with the people. According to the defendant, Thao used the money that nearly 400 people deposited to buy motorbikes and then sold it on credit to 1,589 people in Ky Son district...

When asked by the panel of judges, "You have no role in the private enterprise Hung Thao, so in what capacity did you receive such a large amount of money from the people?", Thao said that because her husband was sick, she stepped in to help him.

The appellate court determined that there was not enough evidence to establish that Thao’s husband and son had colluded with Thao to appropriate the money. The appellate court only considered the issues that the court of first instance had resolved in the case. Therefore, if the victims have grounds to establish that Thao’s husband (now deceased) and Thao’s son had colluded with Thao to use the misappropriated money for spending, they can continue to file a petition with the investigating agency for consideration.

The panel of judges also held that the investigation, case files and trial process did not provide evidence to prove that Thao had transferred assets to her daughter, therefore, there was no basis to consider this circumstance. If the victims have sufficient evidence to prove that Thao had transferred assets to her daughter, they have the right to file a petition with the enforcement agency to verify and carry out procedures in accordance with the provisions of law.

After 1 day of trial, the appellate court announced, partially accepted the appeal and amended the first instance judgment on civil compensation for Ms. X., did not accept the appeals of other victims, upheld other issues of the first instance judgment, and sentenced Thao to life in prison for fraud and appropriation of property.

Regarding civil liability, the defendant Thao must compensate the victims as the first instance judgment declared, forcing Mr. Nguyen Cao Cuong (Thao's son) to jointly compensate 9 victims. The defendant Thao must compensate Ms. X. with an additional 9 taels of 9999 gold.

At the appeal hearing, the panel of judges also recommended that people who intend to contribute capital to earn interest should research reputable agencies and organizations to avoid falling into the situation of "losing both money and health" due to the desire for high interest rates./.