Fraudulently "fixing a case" and appropriating 1.5 billion VND

On July 11, 2018, the High People's Court in Hanoi opened an appeal hearing to consider the appeal for a reduced sentence of defendant Nguyen Thanh Tung (29 years old, residing in Thanh Tam commune, Thanh Liem district, Ha Nam) for fraud and appropriation of property.

According to the first instance verdict of the Hanoi People's Court, Tung happened to know Mr. Nguyen and was told by him that his biological mother had been sentenced to death by the Hanoi People's Court for illegal drug trafficking, so he was looking for a way to reduce his mother's sentence.

Knowing this, Tung had the intention of defrauding and appropriating property by claiming to be an officer of the Oil and Gas industry, having wide acquaintances with people working in law enforcement agencies, including many central-level leaders.

Tung said that if Mr. Nguyen wanted his mother’s sentence to be reduced, he would help reduce the death sentence to life in prison. In return, Mr. Nguyen had to give 1 billion VND for Tung to “give as a gift” to those who helped his mother.

Then, from April to August 2017, Mr. Nguyen and his wife gave Tung money four times, totaling more than one billion VND. But every time Mr. Nguyen and his wife asked about the results of the "trial", Tung gave different reasons to delay and did not respond.

Suspecting that he had been scammed by Tung, Mr. Nguyen and his wife filed a complaint with the police against Tung. While the police were investigating, Tung was still unaware that his fraudulent behavior had been reported.

On September 27, 2017, Tung called Mr. Nguyen and his wife to meet him at a coffee shop on Tran Dai Nghia Street (Hai Ba Trung District) to give the remaining amount to make up 2 billion VND. While Tung was receiving the money from Mr. Nguyen and his wife, he was discovered and caught red-handed by the police.

Investigation results determined that after getting married and having two children, Tung left his wife and children in the countryside to go to Hanoi to rent an apartment in Dai Kim ward, Hoang Mai district, to live with his girlfriend.

During this time, Tung used a car paid for in installments by a relative, worth about 600 million VND, to polish himself. Every time he went out to socialize, Tung always dressed up, carried a branded briefcase and always claimed to be an official of the Oil and Gas industry.

In fact, Tung did not have a stable job, so after a while, he also mortgaged the car he borrowed from his relatives. Later, whenever he pretended to be an oil and gas official to commit fraud, Tung often rented or borrowed cars from acquaintances. Regarding the fraud of Mr. Nguyen and his wife, the investigation agency determined that Tung had appropriated nearly 1.5 billion VND.

At the first instance trial, the jury sentenced defendant Tung to 14 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property. Considering the sentence too severe, defendant Tung filed an appeal.

During the appeal trial, the defendant Tung admitted to committing the crime as determined in the first instance judgment. When the presiding judge asked, “Does the defendant have any new circumstances for the Trial Panel to consider reducing his sentence?”, Tung replied, “The defendant does not have any.”

The presiding judge explained, “If the defendant does not provide any new details, there is no basis for the Trial Panel to reduce the sentence.” Hearing this, defendant Tung asked to withdraw his appeal. Therefore, the Appeal Trial Panel decided to suspend the appeal trial of this case. Thus, defendant Tung accepted to serve the 14-year prison sentence as the Court of First Instance had sentenced him.