Fraudulent sale of fake meteorite worth 300 billion VND to tycoon

A group of people boasted of having a meteorite weighing nearly 5 kg and tried every way to trick a tycoon in Ho Chi Minh City into selling it for 300 billion VND.

On July 4, Khanh Hoa police detained Phan Thanh Du (39 years old), Le Anh Nguyen (44 years old) and their accomplices to investigate the act of Fraudulent appropriation of property.

Two suspects at the police station. Photo: XN

According to initial investigation, Du worked for Mr. Bui Van Sang (66 years old, in Ho Chi Minh City). He knew that the tycoon was rich and very passionate about meteorites. Whenever he heard about a source of goods, the tycoon would look to buy them.

Surplus discussion with friend Le Anh Nguyenplan to cheat. When hearing Du boast about an ethnic minority family owning a meteorite weighing nearly 5 kg, selling for 300 billion VND, the tycoonimmediately asked to bring to buy and sell for profit.

To make him believe, Nguyen called some ethnic minorities in Binh Thuan and Lam Dong to pretend to be gemstone owners and bring meteorite samples for his partner to verify.

On June 23, the group of scammers met Mr. Sang at a coffee shop in Dien Khanh district, Khanh Hoa. There, they used a glass panel to place close to the box that was said to be a meteorite for 5 minutes, then the glass panel cracked and broke into tiny pieces.

Mr. Sang believed that it was a real meteorite, so he agreed to buy it and gave them 1.3 billion as a deposit. When he received the "heavenly stone", he would pay the full amount.

In the afternoon, Mr. Sang met Nguyen and asked his friend to check the goods again. Suddenly, Nguyen snatched the bag containing the meteorite box, jumped into his accomplice's car and sped away.

Nearly 900 million and many exhibits recovered from the fraud group. Photo: XN

During the investigation, Khanh Hoa police arrested the fraud group one by one, recovering nearly 900 million VND. Initially, Nguyen stated that after receiving money from Mr. Sang, he gave 200 million VND to the group of people pretending to be the owners of the meteorite.

According to VNE