'Beauty' admits to cheating rich man

On September 24, at the People's Court of Nghe An province, the Hanoi High People's Court opened an appeal trial of defendant Dao Thi Mong Thuong (46 years old, residing in Lai Vung district, Dong Thap) for the crime ofFraudulent appropriation of property.

According to the case file, in 2019, Thuong created a Facebook account named Dao Ngoc Minh, introducing himself as a Vietnamese Canadian to approach and get to know Mr. NVH (from Nghe An). At that time, Mr. H. was separated from his wife, so when the beautiful, rich girl texted him, she appeared to be a good listener and understanding, so she agreed to be friends.

Ngoc Minh introduced himself as having a Vietnamese-Canadian father and a Hong Kong mother, whose family owns a large shipping company in Canada. He usually holds 15% of the company's shares, is trusted by his family, and uses their bank accounts for business transactions.

During the process of committing the fraud, Thuong painstakingly created situations to make Mr. H. believe that Ngoc Minh was real. After a long time of confiding online, Mr. H. developed feelings for “Ngoc Minh”.

During the period from September 19, 2019 to April 27, 2022, by creating many different situations such as needing money for business, paperwork, giving gifts, inheritance procedures, land investment..., Mong Thuong in the role of Ngoc Minh was transferred a total of more than 12.2 billion VND by Mr. H.

Defendant Thuong also "generously" spent more than 400 million VND to buy gifts and transferred more than 2.5 billion VND to Mr. H. when he needed to invest in business.

During the time they knew each other, Mr. H. repeatedly requested to meet “Ngoc Minh” but was refused and avoided with many reasons. When calling via social networking application, “Ngoc Minh” did not let the other party see the image clearly.

By April 2022, Mr. H. discovered that he had been scammed, so he contacted Thuong many times, asking him to return the money but to no avail. Therefore, Mr. H. filed a complaint against Thuong with the police.

At the first instance trial, the defendant Thuong did not admit to the fraud, but claimed that he and the victim had a romantic relationship, and that the money Mr. H. transferred to him was “love expenses”. The defendant requested to confront Mr. H. to clarify this content, but the victim refused, requesting to be tried in absentia.

Although the defendant did not admit to the crime, based on the results of the investigation, questioning, and public debate at the trial, the panel of judges determined that the prosecution of the defendant was correct. The court sentenced Dao Thi Mong Thuong to life in prison.

The defendant then appealed for a reduced sentence. At the appeal hearing held on August 21, the defendant Thuong stated that he realized his actions were wrong and asked the court to consider a reduced sentence.

Thuong said that during the investigation, the defendant had "more than ten times" influenced his brother to return 4 billion VND to the victim, but at the first instance trial, due to confusion, he forgot to explain.

However, this content did not convince the panel of judges, because at the first instance trial, the defendant did not admit to the crime. The defendant's brother's initiative to return the above amount of money was due to his awareness of its origin.

The defendant then requested a temporary adjournment of the trial to influence the victim's family to compensate the victim. At the defendant's request, the panel of judges decided to adjourn the trial so that the defendant could influence the victim's family to compensate the victim.

However, at the trial on September 24, the defendant stated that he had not yet paid any additional compensation to the victim. The defendant stated that he had tried to influence his relatives but that no one was currently able to do so.

Because the defendant did not provide any new details compared to the court of first instance to consider reducing the sentence, the appellate panel advised the defendant to consider withdrawing the appeal. During the execution of the sentence, the defendant's influence on the family to gradually compensate the victim is the basis for considering reducing the sentence.

After a moment of thought, the defendant decided to withdraw the appeal, accept the life sentence and the court of first instance passed the sentence.