Late apology from former land office employee

Fraudulent tricks of land office branch staff

Nguyen Quang Truong (30 years old), residing in Dong Hop commune, Quy Hop district, is a contract employee at the Land Engineering Department, Quy Hop District Land Registration Office Branch from April 1, 2021 to October 2022. Truong was assigned to assist in extracting and supplementing cadastral measurements of land plots, correcting cadastral records and performing other tasks assigned by superiors.

After a short time of working, since April 2021, the School has been asked by many people in Dong Hop commune and some neighboring communes to do procedures related tolandAfter completing the procedures and being granted a "red book", people often "tip" Truong from 5 to 10 million VND.

Around September 2021, due to losing money playing "sic bo" online, Truong came up with the idea of ​​​​fraud. Truong's method was to receive money from people and then promise to do land-related procedures such as separating the cover, issuing "red covers", changing the land use purpose... However, after receiving the money from people, this subject used it to gamble online.

For example, around the end of October 2021, because he believed that Truong working at the Quy Hop District Land Registration Office Branch could handle the procedures for land use right certificates, Mr. Hoang Van T. asked this officer to make "red books" for 3 plots of land.

After the exchange, Mr. T. transferred 95 million VND to Truong's account, of which 30 million VND was for tax, fees and wages of the School, the remaining amount was for procedures to change the land use purpose, "red book". However, after receiving the money, Truong used it to play "sic bo" online without completing the procedures for Mr. T.

With the same trick, Truong appropriated 50 million VND from Mr. Nguyen Xuan H. (born in 1978, residing in Tam Hop commune). Around the beginning of September 2022, because he trusted the work Truong was doing, Mr. H. asked this officer to complete the procedures for issuing and changing the land use right certificate (from red book to pink book), changing the land use purpose from land for perennial crops to residential land. Truong told Mr. H. that the above procedures cost 100 million VND and promised to complete the procedures according to Mr. H's request within 2 months.

Trusting him, on September 10, 2022, Mr. H. transferred 50 million VND to Truong. Truong used all the money to play online Sic Bo without doing any procedures related to land for Mr. H.

The investigation agency determined that from November 2021 to October 6, 2022, Nguyen Quang Truong abused his job to receive money to carry out land-related procedures, appropriating more than 2.8 billion VND from 39 people.

On October 6, 2022, the Nghe An Provincial Land Registration Office terminated the employment contract with Nguyen Quang Truong. However, Truong concealed the fact that he had quit his job to continue receiving money, doing land procedures, defrauding 20 people, and appropriating nearly 1.1 billion VND. Thus, the total amount of money that Nguyen Quang Truong defrauded and abused the trust of the victims was nearly 4 billion VND.

With the above criminal acts, Nguyen Quang Truong was prosecuted and brought to trial for two crimes of Fraudulent appropriation of property and Abuse of position and power to appropriate property.

Late Apology

At the new trial, the defendant Truong admitted to the crime as charged in the indictment. The defendant stated that at first, he had helped some people successfully complete land-related procedures. Later, because he lost money playing online cards and virtual currency, he committed fraud in an attempt to recoup the lost money. However, the more he played, the more he lost, leading to his inability to pay.

In addition, the defendant also stated that he had used some money to invest in land plots under the form of “deposit surfing”, but later lost a lot of money due to abandoning the deposit. However, the defendant did not provide any evidence related to this statement.

The defendant told the court that after the incident broke out, his family sold some of their assets to “save” him, but they have not yet recovered. In his testimony to the jury, the defendant said that his parents are old and cannot do heavy work, and the family’s finances are exhausted. The defendant said that he is currently unable to pay the debt to the victims and promised to earn money to pay it back gradually when he is released from prison.

In his final statement before the court deliberated, defendant Truong apologized to his former agency for his fraudulent behavior that had affected the unit and related people. The defendant also apologized to his relatives and the victims in the case. Referring to his relatives and parents, the defendant bowed his head, expressing remorse...

Truong is the youngest in a family of 3 siblings. His parents sent him to school and gave him a job that many people dream of, but because of his addiction to gambling and online gambling, this young man gradually fell deeper and deeper into the wrong path. When he realized it, Truong had lost everything: family, job, money and most importantly, honor. The defendant clearly understood that with such a large sum of money, it would be difficult for his relatives to pay all of it to the victims. Therefore, at the trial, the defendant apologized to the victims and asked for the opportunity to gradually pay off the debt.

Dozens of defendants who attended the trial that day were all sad. Because the amount of tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dong that they gave to Truong was a huge amount for people living in the mountains like them. Just because of lack of knowledge and fear of doing procedures related to land, they were cheated out of the money they had saved for many years. Therefore, everyone wanted to get back the money that had been cheated.

After the trial, the court determined that the defendant's actions were dangerous to society, violated the law, and defrauded others of their money. After a comprehensive review of the case, the panel sentenced Nguyen Quang Truong to 15 years in prison for the crime of Abusing power and authority to appropriate property; and 10 years in prison for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property. The total sentence for the defendant was 25 years in prison.

Because of greed and gambling, Truong has gone down the wrong path. Now, the price that the former land office employee has to pay is a 25-year prison sentence and the loss of his youth in prison. The defendant's remorse and apologies at the trial have come too late. The sentence for the defendant is also a general lesson for those who are lost in gambling, gambling, to know how to stop before it is too late.