The man tricked people into going to the US and appropriated nearly 700 million VND.

On April 13, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Le Dinh Chinh (born 1984), residing in Hung Tay commune, Hung Nguyen district, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

According to the indictment, in September 2019, Chinh met Ms. HTTN (born in 1983, residing in Lang Son province) in Dak Lak province. Here, Chinh introduced to Ms. N. a family with 2 children (one adopted, one biological) residing and studying in the US. Chinh frequently traveled between Vietnam and the US to visit his children and had the ability to bring people to the US to study and live.

Hearing Chinh say that, Ms. N. asked Chinh to help her two children go to America. At this time, Chinh had the intention of taking possession of Ms. N.'s property, so he agreed.

Chinh told Ms. N. that the cost of going to the US was 32,000 USD (equivalent to 742 million VND). At the same time, Chinh gave false information about the paperwork procedures for those in need. Trusting her, from September 23 to November 6, 2019, Ms. N. transferred 476 million VND to Chinh 6 times.

Defendant Le Dinh Chinh in court. Photo: Tran Vu

Then, because she wanted to go live with her child, Ms. N. asked Chinh to take care of the procedures for her to travel to the US. Chinh accepted and said the cost would be 11,000 USD (equivalent to more than 255 million VND). To make the victim trust him, Chinh gave many false information such as: Visa fees, Apec card fees, savings book fees to prove financial status... and asked Ms. N. to transfer money to do those procedures.

Because of trust, within 8 days (from October 21 to October 29, 2019), Ms. N. transferred more than 221 million VND to Chinh 9 times. Chinh spent all the money he received from Ms. N. on his personal expenses. As for Ms. N.'s mother's file, Chinh lost it.

When Ms. N. called to urge him, Chinh gave many reasons and did not return the money or send the documents to Ms. N. On April 23, 2021, Ms. N. went to the police to report Chinh's crime. On the same day, Chinh went to the police to confess and admit his crime.

At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crime. The defendant spent the money he defrauded and appropriated from the victim for personal use.

For the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property", the defendant Le Dinh Chinh was sentenced by the court to 13 years in prison. Combined with the previous sentence of 1 year and 3 months in prison for the crime of "Intentionally causing injury", the defendant was sentenced to a total sentence of 14 years and 3 months in prison. The court ordered the defendant to return the amount of money he had appropriated to the victim.