Miss Universe gets 15 years in prison for multi-million dollar fraud

Selling and receiving a deposit for a 30,000 m2 plot of land without an investment license, a Miss Saigon illegally earned millions of dollars.

After 6 days of trial, on the morning of July 26, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Truong Thi Tuyet Nga (56 years old, living in Go Vap district - won the title of Miss Successful Lady in 2009) to 15 years in prison for the act of Fraudulent appropriation of property.

According to the case, in 2007-2008, Ms. Nga applied for an investment license to build a luxury housing project and a commercial center on a 30,000 m2 plot of land in District 2, Ho Chi Minh City. However, this land was located in the planning area for Thu Thiem station, so the defendant was not granted a construction and investment license as desired.

However, the beauty queen still signed a contract to transfer the land use rights to Ms. Duong My Linh, collecting a deposit of 3.1 million USD (according to the indictment). According to the agreement, the selling price was 1,800 USD/m2, the total transaction value was 54 million USD. The transfer contract did not specifically describe the location of the land.

When questioned by the customer, Nga reassured him by affirming that there would be a detailed contract when the full payment for the land was paid. At the trial, Ms. Nga stated that the last 1.5 million receipt was a document listing the total amount she had received from Ms. Linh, and absolutely not the additional amount.

On the other hand, Ms. Linh claimed that in addition to the previous transactions, the last transaction also gave Ms. Nga an additional 1.5 million USD. When receiving the money, this woman did not fulfill her previous commitment. However, in the sentencing, the panel of judges ordered the defendant to return 3.1 million USD to Ms. Linh.

By another trick, taking advantage of her acquaintances, Nga borrowed some land use right certificates. From the obtained papers, she completed the procedure to give them to her son, then used these "red books" to mortgage the bank for 131 billion VND, then was discovered.

Defendant Tuyet Nga on July 26.

During the investigation, the authorities also received many complaints from individuals and organizations accusing this beauty queen of defrauding and appropriating nearly 900 billion VND. The Investigation Department of the Supreme People's Procuracy also decided to prosecute the defendant for bribing several officials to escape punishment in the defrauding and appropriating 3.1 million USD.

Regarding the case of 2,909 m2 notarized transfer to Mr. Tran Van Muoi, Ms. Tuyet Nga appropriated nearly 1.5 billion VND, the defendant stated that there was absolutely no land sale or money transfer with this person. The defendant stated that the above land was used to pay Mr. Muoi for helping to collect land from people in Binh Khanh ward, District 2.

On April 2, 2008, defendant Nga and her husband authorized Mr. Muoi to transfer or authorize the above land plot to another person. But just one day later, the defendant and her husband made a power of attorney for their child, then used this document to borrow money from the bank.

For his part, Mr. Muoi said that the transaction of the above land area was actually worth 35 billion VND, not 1.5 billion VND as stated in the indictment. The 1.5 billion VND figure was only for tax fraud purposes. The panel of judges affirmed that this was a legal transaction, and the above land plot belonged to Mr. Muoi.

According to Zing