Former Deputy Director of the National Assembly Office accused of defrauding foreign businessman of 1.8 million USD

The Hanoi People's Court has just accepted and prepared to bring to trial the case of Mr. Do Minh Tam (former Deputy Director of the Administration Department 1 of the National Assembly Office) and Nguyen The Phung (freelance worker) for defrauding and appropriating 1.8 million USD from a foreign businessman.

According to the accusation, Mr. Dam Duc C. (in Ho Chi Minh City) knew that Mr. P. was a Laotian businessman. Mr. P. held the position of Chairman of Company A. headquartered in Vientiane City.

In April 2019, Mr. P. told Mr. C. that he wanted to invest in building a Vietnam-Laos friendship building in Hanoi and asked for Mr. C.'s help. Through Mr. C.'s relationship, Mr. P. was introduced to meet Do Minh Tam and Nguyen The Phung.

When meeting Mr. P., Mr. Tam said that he had a relationship with the leaders of Hanoi City. Mr. Tam also introduced his headquarters and working position. The two subjects took the Lao businessman to see the land plots of about 10,000 m2 and 9,400 m2 near the Keangnam building and said that they would help Mr. P. buy these two plots of land to build a friendship building and office for rent.

Defendant Tam asked Mr. P. to pay 6% of the total actual project cost, and to pay 1.8 million USD in advance.

Mr. Tam even took Mr. P. to the National Assembly building where Mr. Tam worked so that Mr. P. could trust him completely. Mr. Tam also said that he was working for a state agency so he could not work directly with and receive money from Mr. P., so Mr. Phung would be the one to sign the contract and receive money on his behalf.

Trusting, on November 10, 2019, Company A. signed a service contract with Mr. Nguyen The Phung to receive advice, support in obtaining licenses and contacting and working with competent authorities in Vietnam to invest in projects on the above 2 land lots.

In November 2019, an employee of Company A. transferred money to Mr. Phung 6 times, each time 300,000 USD, totaling 1.8 million USD. The entire amount was borrowed by Mr. P. from a Chairman of the Board of Directors of a company in Vietnam.

According to the accusation, after the deadline, Mr. Phung and Mr. Tam did not perform according to the contract signed with Company A. At this time, Mr. P. repeatedly asked Mr. Phung to refund the money, but was only paid 130,000 USD.

In 2022, the Lao businessman reported the case to the police and has so far received full repayment of 1.8 million USD from the defendants.

The investigation agency also clarified that in May 2021, Mr. Nguyen The Phung committed fraud and appropriated 2.7 billion VND from a woman named H. by accepting help to "fix the case".

The indictment determined that Mr. Phung and Mr. Tam appropriated more than 41.6 billion VND from Mr. P. The total amount of money the two defendants appropriated from the two victims was determined to be more than 44.3 billion VND.