Shady land transfer in Hung Binh ward for fraudsters?

(Baonghean) - Because of gullibility, many victims have unfortunately fallen into the trap of "super scammer" Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh. The journey to seek justice and get back the money they were scammed is extremely difficult for the victims.

Difficulty in getting back money that was cheated

In recent times, Nghe An Newspaper has continuously received petitions from many citizens denouncing the fraudulent appropriation of property by Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh (residing in Le Mao Ward, Vinh City). Through verification and reflection, the content of the denunciation by the people is well-founded. It is known that in June 2016, the Provincial Police decided to prosecute the case and in August 2016, Vinh City Police decided to prosecute Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

After consolidating the case file, the Vinh City Police Investigation Agency requested the Vinh City People's Procuracy to prosecute Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh for fraud and property appropriation under Article 193 of the Penal Code.

In February 2017, the Vinh City People's Court brought Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh to trial for fraud and property appropriation. The panel of judges determined that Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh had defrauded 3 victims to appropriate 390 million VND and sentenced Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh to 8 years in prison and ordered her to return all the money she had appropriated from the victims.

1. Mr. Nguyen Huy Chat (Nghi Truong commune, Nghi Loc district) presented evidence that Ms. Ngoc Anh received 160 million VND from him but did not return it. 2. Receipts, payment commitments, and guarantees written by Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh. Photo: Nguyen Hung.

But the matter did not stop there, Mr. Nguyen Huy Chat, residing in Nghi Truong commune (Nghi Loc) continued to send a petition to many agencies. Mr. Chat said: “After I demanded a debt of 160 million VND, Ngoc Anh gave me a notarized photocopy of land plot No. 38, map sheet 38 in the name of Ngo Tien Hung and Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh in block 24, Hung Binh ward with a commitment that if there was no money, she would mortgage the house, land title and other assets on the land in the name of Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh and her husband to me. Realizing that there were signs of asset dissipation, in October 2016, I submitted a petition to the People's Committee of Hung Binh ward (Vinh city) not to transfer the above land plot. My petition was confirmed by Mr. Nguyen Huu Dac - Chairman of the People's Committee of Hung Binh ward and then I submitted it to the Land Office.

When he learned that the land plot in Block 24, Hung Binh Ward of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh and her husband had been transferred to another person, Mr. Nguyen Huy Chat filed a complaint and said that this was an act of asset disposal by Mr. Ngo Tien Hung and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh to avoid the obligation to pay the debt to him. At the same time, there was collusion between the competent officials of the People's Committee of Hung Binh Ward and the Office of Land Use Rights Registration of Vinh City for Mrs. Ngoc Anh and her husband to carry out the transfer. "The time to complete the land transfer dossier within only 3 days is too fast and there is something shady" - Mr. Chat said.

Sharing the same opinion, Ms. Tran Thanh Nga, residing in Le Mao ward (Vinh city) - the person who filed a complaint about lending Ms. Ngoc Anh more than 1 billion VND but not yet paid back - also said that the authorities' handling of the land transfer application of Ms. Ngoc Anh and her husband was aiding the act of asset disposal.

According to Ms. Nga, in November 2016, she submitted a petition to the Vinh City People's Committee requesting to temporarily suspend the procedures for land use rights transactions and property ownership rights on land for plot number 38, map sheet 38 in block 24, Hung Binh ward, under the name of Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh and her husband.

Then, on November 14, 2016, Vinh City People's Committee issued Official Letter No. 6458/UBND-TP requesting the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Office of Land Use Rights Registration and the People's Committee of Hung Binh Ward to temporarily stop handling the transfer procedures for the above land plot. Therefore, the confirmation by the People's Committee of Hung Binh Ward that the land plot is not in dispute is incorrect.

The land plot, map sheet number 38 and the house on the land were transferred by Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh and her husband to another person before the court sentenced them to 8 years in prison. Photo: Nguyen Hung

Is there anything shady?

It is known that the land plot of Mr. Ngo Tien Hung and Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh was granted land use right certificate No. CC476949 by Vinh City People's Committee on November 15, 2015 at land plot 38, map sheet 38, area 98.6m2 of land in block 24, Hung Binh ward (Vinh City). On November 26, 2015, Mr. Hung and Ms. Anh registered to mortgage the Land Use Right Certificate at the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Nghe An province branch.

On January 16, 2017, Mr. Hung and Ms. Anh completed the procedures to remove the bank mortgage at the Vinh City Land Use Rights Registration Office. On the same day, Mr. Hung and Ms. Anh made a declaration of land use rights transfer and were confirmed by the People's Committee of Hung Binh Ward that the land plot had no disputes, complaints or execution of judgments. The land transfer contract for Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung and Ms. Tran Thi To Hoai was certified by Phu My Hung Notary Office.

When asked about the request from Mr. Nguyen Huy Chat not to transfer the above land plot but the ward still carried it out, Mr. Nguyen Tat Au - a cadastral officer of Hung Binh ward said that the ward had not received any request from Mr. Chat before the time of transferring the land plot of Ms. Ngoc Anh.

Mr. Au also said that the ward had also sent a request to block 24 to verify the status of the land plot and then the block leader, Mr. Luong Van Trung, also confirmed on the request that the land plot was not in dispute and had completed all tax payments.

Mr. Luong Van Trung said: “On the morning of January 16, 2017, Mr. Ngo Tien Hung came to my house and gave me a receipt from the ward asking the block to confirm. I saw that Mr. Hung’s land plot had paid taxes in full and the block had not received any information about the debt of Mr. Hung and his wife, so I confirmed it.”

What “surprised” many people was the time it took to process the land use right transfer procedures for plot 38, map sheet 38 of Ms. Ngoc Anh and her husband. After receiving the dossier from Hung Binh ward, on January 17, the Vinh City Land Use Right Registration Office sent a notice to the Vinh City Tax Department requesting to determine the financial obligations regarding land for the plot of land.

Equally quickly, on January 17, 2017, the Vinh City Tax Department issued a notice to pay the house and land registration fee. On January 19, the Vinh City Land Registration Office processed the transfer file of the above land plot from Mr. Ngo Tien Hung and Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh to Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung and Ms. Nguyen Thi To Hoai.

Mr. Le Quoc Tuan - Director of the Vinh City Land Registration Office said that the office had asked Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Nga to provide documents related to the mortgage or transaction documents for the land plot from the competent authority, but Ms. Nga could not provide them. As for Mr. Nguyen Huy Chat's application, the office only received it in February 2017, after the land plot had been transferred. Regarding the processing time, Mr. Tuan said that the office tries to process almost all documents as soon as possible for citizens and there was no impact in this case.

The story of Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh, who defrauded many victims in Vinh City, Nghi Loc District, has been widely reported in the press in recent times. Previously, in 2015, the Vinh City People's Committee forced Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh, who was then a teacher at Nghi An Secondary School, to resign because she had defrauded and appropriated the property of a school official.

After quitting his job, Ngoc Anh continued to scam many other people out of hundreds of millions of dong. Ngoc Anh's trick was to claim to be acquainted with "big" officials so he could apply for jobs in state agencies. When the victims trusted him and gave him money, Ngoc Anh forged the decision to accept the job from the state agency and then took more money from the victims. Many people knew they had been scammed so they came to ask for their money back and got it back, but there were people like Mr. Chat and Ms. Nga who had been knocking on many doors for over a year but still had not gotten their money back.

From the above case, it can be seen that, in the face of subjects being investigated for fraudulent appropriation of property, the authorities need to take action to freeze assets to prevent the dissipation of assets. At the same time, more caution is needed in handling procedures for transferring land and assets on land for subjects who have been prosecuted for fraudulent appropriation of property./.

Nguyen Hung