Fraudulently sold mother's land to relatives, embezzling billions

On July 27, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of Pham Van Dao (born 1980), residing in Son Hai commune, Quynh Luu district, for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property.

According to the investigation agency's documents, Dao is the son of Ms. Ho Thi Van (born in 1958, residing in Son Hai commune). Ms. Van and her husband own a plot of land measuring 235 m2.²has been granted a land use right certificate by the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district.

In March 2018, due to needing money to pay off debts, personal expenses and business investments, Pham Van Dao came up with the idea of ​​​​fraudulently selling the above land plot to those who wanted to buy it. Dao spread the news that he wanted to sell the land to move elsewhere.

Defendant Pham Van Dao. Photo: Tran Vu

Knowing the story, Mr. Le Xuan Thang (Mrs. Van's cousin) contacted to buy that land for his daughter-in-law and her husband, Ms. Bui Thi Hieu, for 2.8 billion VND.

Knowing that this land plot was under Mrs. Van's decision, Mr. Thang asked Dao: "Do you agree to sell it?". To increase Mr. Thang's trust, Dao said: "I will decide everything, you don't have to worry, I said I would sell the land to you."

Trusting that Dao was a relative in the family, the land purchase only needed a verbal agreement between the two of them and then the legal procedures for the land purchase were carried out, so Mr. Thang gave a deposit of 30 million VND in advance.

On May 7, 2018, Dao directly met Ms. Hieu and asked for an additional 400 million VND to withdraw the land use right certificate from the bank to complete the procedures to transfer the land title to Ms. Hieu. Without any suspicion, Ms. Hieu gave Dao the above amount of money.

Then, in May, June, July, and August 2018, Dao used the excuses of converting the garden into residential land, buying new land, and solving personal matters to request and receive nearly 800 million VND from Ms. Hieu. Thus, the total amount of money that Dao appropriated from Ms. Hieu was nearly 1.2 billion VND.

After repeatedly asking Dao to complete the land sale procedures but failing and not receiving a refund, on April 4, 2019, Ms. Hieu filed a complaint with the police.

At the trial, the defendant admitted all the crimes. Defendant Dao stated that he had spent all the money he had embezzled for personal use and was unable to return it.

Before this trial took place, the defendant's mother paid Ms. Hieu 400 million VND.

Considering the case in its entirety, the court sentenced Pham Van Dao to 8 years in prison. The defendant was ordered to return nearly 800 million VND to the victim.

It is known that Dao was twice sentenced to prison and administrative fines for gambling.