Exposing the 'trial-fixing' scam of the Head of the Labor Department of Hoang Mai town

On March 26, Hoang Mai Town Police announced that they had issued a decision to prosecute the case, prosecuting defendant Nguyen Van Bac - former Head of the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs of Hoang Mai Town and accomplice Nguyen Xuan Van for the act of Fraudulent appropriation of property.

Previously, on March 20, 2020, Nguyen Van Bac, then Head of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Hoang Mai town, was arrested.

The incident originated in May 2019, when the Investigation Police Agency of Hoang Mai Town discovered, arrested and decided to prosecute the case, prosecute the suspect VHT (residing in Quynh Loc, Hoang Mai) for the crime of "Illegal trading of explosives" under Clause 4, Article 305, Penal Code.2015 (amended and supplemented 2017).

After her husband was arrested, Ms. H. contacted Nguyen Van Bac (born in 1976), residing in Hamlet 6, Quynh Lap Commune, Hoang Mai Town, who was then the Head of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Hoang Mai Town, to ask for help.

Ms. H. and her family members went to Bac's house to ask for help in "fixing the case". Here, Bac asserted that he knew a person named Van in Hanoi who could help the family. Specifically, Bac promised and guaranteed that he would ask for a lighter sentence, only 1 to 3 years in prison with a cost of 1.5 billion VND. With his position, Bac gained the absolute trust of the victim's family. Because he was an acquaintance of the subject, Bac also promised to support his friend with 100 million VND to take care of the matter.

Subject at the police station. Photo: Anh Quan

Believing Bac, T.'s family ran around and borrowed a large amount of money to give to Bac. In total, Ms. H. gave Bac 1,399,000,000 VND, divided into 3 installments. The first time was in July 2019, Ms. H. gave 904 million VND. The second time was 20 million VND and the last time was 475 million VND.

Although she trusted the subject with the entire large sum of money, her husband was still processed and prosecuted according to the prescribed penalty framework, so Ms. H. asked Bac to pay the money, but the subject still did not pay.

Through the investigation, the police found that the group of subjects were showing signs of committing the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". The Investigation Police Department of the town established a special project 120LĐ to investigate and clarify the case. During the process of collecting evidence of the case and mobilizing the cooperation of the victims, the special project team collected important evidence of Bac's actions. On that basis, the Hoang Mai Town Police issued an order to urgently detain Nguyen Van Bac for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

At the police station, Bac confessed to all his crimes. Accordingly, after receiving money from his family, Bac added another 100 million VND as promised and gave that money to Nguyen Xuan Van to "run the case".

After knowing that there was no way to escape the case and "smelling" that the police were involved, Bac called Van to ask him to return the money. On February 25, the subject sent someone to bring the full amount of 1.5 billion VND to pay Bac. After receiving the money, Bac went to the house of Mr. D., the subject's brother, to pay 520 million VND. Mr. D. said that after paying 520 million VND, Bac wrote a debt note to his family for 880 million VND and told him that if the police asked, he should say that he had paid the full amount.

In mid-March 2020, Nguyen Van Bac was arrested by the police. During an extended investigation, the police also arrested Nguyen Xuan Van.