Impersonating reporters to blackmail kindergartens

On November 27, the Hanoi People's Court opened a first-instance trial and sentenced two defendants, Nguyen Van Cuong (born in 1984, residing in Nghia Hung district, Nam Dinh) to five years in prison and Nguyen Van Cuong (born in 1989, residing in Phu Xuyen district, Hanoi) to four years in prison for the same crime of "Extortion of property."

According to the indictment of the Hanoi People's Procuracy, Cuong was accepted as an employee at the Vietnam Youth Media Joint Stock Company (abbreviated as the Media Company) and was assigned to go to units to solicit postings and advertise propaganda.

Because the Media Company had a contract with the Tuoi Tre Thu Do newspaper to publish propaganda articles in the newspaper, Cuong and several other employees were considered collaborators of the newspaper. Due to failure to complete his tasks, Cuong was fired by the Media Company at the end of 2012.

However, the Media Company still contacted Cuong to collect his debt and still published propaganda articles. During his time working at the Media Company, due to loopholes in management and issuance of letters of introduction, Cuong obtained many letters of introduction from the Tuoi Tre Thu Do newspaper.

In early March 2013, Cuong invited Nguyen Van Cuong to go to Phu Tuc Kindergarten (Phu Xuyen District, Hanoi). When arriving, Cuong and Cuong presented their letters of introduction and introduced themselves as reporters from Tuoi Tre Thu Do newspaper who came to work with the school. After investigating, Cuong accused the school of violations such as collecting money against regulations, two teachers beating students, and littering.

On March 18, 2013, Cuong and Cuong returned to the school and threatened to write articles badmouthing the school. If they did not want to write the articles, the school would have to pay Cuong and Cuong 15 million VND. Because they were afraid of affecting the school's reputation, the school's Board of Directors agreed to pay the money but asked to reduce it to 8 million VND and pay 2 million VND in advance.

Then, on March 29, when two teachers in the school's Board of Directors were having a meeting at the Phu Xuyen District Education Department, Cuong called to demand the remaining amount of money. When Cuong and Cuong were receiving the money, they were caught red-handed.

Through investigation, the police determined that, using similar tricks, from December 13, 2012 to January 6, 2013, Cuong and Cuong impersonated reporters from Tuoi Tre Thu Do newspaper to threaten and appropriate a total of 73 million VND from six kindergartens in Phu Xuyen district (Hanoi)./.

According to Vietnam+