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

Falling 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 cracking down on a cross-provincial football betting and lottery gambling ring, 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 subject who committed the act.CheatThe list of victims counted 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, many residents, after receiving the full interest payment, 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 invitation of her neighbor, Ms. NTT gave 200 million VND, the capital she had saved from selling goods for many years, 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 a period of not being paid interest due to the reason of increased interest rate, 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 to 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. "handed over the egg to the evil". "After saving and saving, my wife and I were able to get 65 million VND. We observed that many people sent it, and when needed, we could get 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 for when we were old and sick. 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 gold, silver, jewelry, fine art, and motorbikes of all kinds. Although she knows that her enterprise does not have the function of mobilizing capital for savings deposits, Mrs. Thao herself, as the wife, issued deposit slips and used the red seal of the enterprise to stamp the deposit slips, to create trust, making people mistakenly believe that the capital mobilization is 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 enterprise's accountant to draft a decision to dissolve the enterprise on the grounds that the enterprise 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 mountain 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 mountain town was unexpectedly arrested for gambling and at the same time announced bankruptcy, causing hundreds of people to be devastated.

143 victims simultaneously filed an appeal

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

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 and return the assets to the victims. In addition, victim X. also appealed, requesting Thao to compensate an additional 9999 gold bars.

Since 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 had sold buffaloes, cows, chickens, pigs, borrowed money from banks... because they trusted Thao "the tycoon" and were tricked out of all their money, causing their families to face even more difficulties.

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 in the hands of the people. According to the defendant, Thao used the money that nearly 400 people deposited to buy motorbikes and then resold it 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 panel determined that there was not enough evidence to establish that Thao’s husband and son had conspired to help Thao appropriate the money. The appellate court only considered the issues that the first instance court had resolved in the case. Therefore, if the victims have grounds to determine that Thao’s husband (now deceased) and Thao’s son had conspired to help Thao use the misappropriated money for spending, they can continue to file a petition with the investigation agency for consideration.

The panel of judges also held that the investigation, case files and trial process did not provide any 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 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, and avoid falling into the situation of "losing both money and health" because of the desire for high interest rates./.