Two scammers sentenced to 30 years in prison for 'fixing a case' and appropriating 1 billion VND
Believing that their “fellow inmate” had extensive connections and could “get a suspended sentence,” the victim’s family transferred a total of 1 billion VND in hopes of having their sentence reduced. As a result, the suspended sentence was not granted, the money was lost, and the two scammers received a total of 30 years in prison.
Fraudulent "fixing of sentences", stealing 1 billion VND
Tran Hai (born in 1970), residing in Da Nang city, and Luu Xuan Tam (born in 1979, from Nghe An province), living in Dong Nai province, knew each other through social relationships. Having no stable jobs, the two discussed and colluded with each other to find defendants who wanted to request a sentence reduction, then met them, took advantage of their lack of knowledge to promise to suspend their sentences so that they could benefit together.
Around December 2022, Luu Xuan Tam was detained at Nghe An Provincial Police Detention Center for fraud and property appropriation. At this time, Mr. Luong Van Q. (residing in Vinh Phu Ward, Nghe An) was also detained for gambling, so the two knew each other.
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In mid-March 2023, due to a change in the preventive measure (bail), the two met again. At this time, Tam introduced to Mr. Q. that he had a change in the preventive measure because he knew a man named Hai, who worked at the Investigation Agency of the Supreme People's Procuracy and was asking for help and was asking this person to run a suspended sentence. Believing that Tam had a wide network of connections, Q. contacted him to run a suspended sentence. After that, Tam contacted Tran Hai to ask him to run a suspended sentence for Q., and Hai quoted a price of 700 million VND.
On May 14, 2023, Tam asked Mr. Q. to transfer 20 million VND to "receive people sent by Mr. Hai". After receiving the money, Tam used it to pay off personal debts. 3 days later, Tam asked Mr. Q. to transfer 700 million VND to "fix the case". Because he did not have enough money, Mr. Q. transferred 250 million VND to Tam's bank account in advance with the content "transfer money to Mr. Tam to ask for a suspended sentence". Tam transferred this amount to Hai. Then, in 2 days, May 18-19, 2023, Mr. Q. transferred 450 million VND to Tam. Receiving the above amount, Tam gave 400 million VND to Hai and kept 50 million VND.
Although he had received the full 700 million VND from the victim as promised from the beginning, Tran Hai made up another reason to "extort money". At this time, Tran Hai told Tam that because there were many people in the case, in order to get a suspended sentence for Q., he needed more money to pay for his accomplices. Therefore, Tran Hai told Tam to take an additional 300 million VND from Q.
After negotiating, Q. gave Tam 260 million VND. Tam transferred 110 million VND to Hai and gave 80 million VND to another person under Hai's direction. Tam used the remaining money for personal expenses. The "cost" of running the case did not stop there, when on June 11, 2023, at Tam's request, Mr. Q. continued to transfer 20 million VND to this person.
The investigation agency determined that the total amount of money Mr. Q. transferred to Tam to help with the case was 1 billion VND.
Despite spending billions of dong to hire someone to "fix the case", on June 22, 2023, Luong Van Q. was sentenced to 4 years in prison by the People's Court of Vinh City (old) for "Gambling". Knowing that he had been deceived by Tam, Mr. Q. reported the actions of this person and Tran Hai to the police.
For the above crimes, Luu Xuan Tam and Tran Hai were prosecuted and brought to trial for "Fraudulent appropriation of property". At the trial, both defendants admitted their crimes. Defendant Tam confessed that, in order to make Mr. Q. trust him about the case, he provided information about a person named Hai, an officer of the Supreme People's Procuracy, but with the identification features (voice) and phone number of Tran Hai. Thanks to that, he was able to deceive the victim to defraud the case and appropriate a large amount of money.
After the incident was discovered, Tran Hai took the initiative to return some money to the victim. Meanwhile, Luu Xuan Tam has not yet remedied the consequences. This defendant explained that his difficult circumstances have made him unable to repay the debt. Furthermore, the defendant had just received a 4-year prison sentence for fraud, so “the situation is currently very difficult”.
Lost money, disillusioned, more guilt
Attending the trial as a person with related rights and obligations, Mr. Q's wife recounted how Tam approached and tricked her into running a case. This woman stated that when she heard her husband talk about a friend she knew while in detention for fraud, she felt uneasy and afraid of being tricked. But then, the defendant Tam reassured her and her husband by lying that he was arrested for another crime. After that, Tam gave false information to make her and her husband believe him.
According to the victim's family, Tam continuously gave reasons to request money transfers ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dong. "Tam led us to scam from 700 million dong to 1 billion dong," the victim's wife choked up in court. To have enough money, the family had to run around everywhere, even having to pawn 2 phones and borrow 20 million dong to give to "Hai's people to handle the work". "But after transferring the money to Tam, we asked someone to check and found out we were scammed because there is no one named Tran Hai in the Supreme People's Procuracy," the victim's wife said.
Then she added that when the court sentenced her husband to 4 years in prison for "Gambling", the family knew they had been cheated and asked Tam to return the money. However, he always tried to avoid them. When the family asked to meet Hai, Tam refused. After 1 year of waiting but still not getting the money back, they filed a complaint with the police.
At the trial, the panel of judges reminded people of the consequences of ignorance of the law. It can be seen that the scammers who "fix sentences" often take advantage of the confusion and anxiety of the families of the accused, those who are directly involved in the cases of law violations, to appropriate property. Usually, they will introduce themselves as having "relationships" with leaders and officials who can influence to reduce the sentence or "rescue" the accused. These promises, although baseless, hit the psychology of the accused's family, especially in serious cases...
The consequences of these scams are not limited to the loss of property, but also cause great mental and legal damage to the victim's family. When the fraud is discovered, not only the recipient of the money will be prosecuted, but the person giving the money can also be considered criminally responsible for intentionally trying to influence the legal process.
In this case, the panel of judges determined that the defendants' actions were dangerous to society, directly infringing on the property rights of others protected by law, causing disorder and insecurity in society. After considering the role of each defendant in the case, the panel sentenced Luu Xuan Tam to 14 years in prison, combining the sentence of Fraudulent appropriation of property announced in the trial at the end of 2023, the defendant must serve 18 years in prison. For the same crime of fraud, defendant Tran Hai was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
