Fortune teller sentenced to prison for cheating money

(Baonghean)The trial of the “fraudulent appropriation of property” case took place on the last day of the year. The cold weather seemed to increase the fatigue on the face of defendant Nguyen Thanh B. Perhaps B never expected that he would fall into this situation today. His life as a fortune teller, telling fortunes for others, but he could not predict his own future.

Nguyen Thanh B is a famous fortuneteller. When you come to Yen Thanh, everyone who asks about Mr. B's fortune-telling house will know. Not only people nearby, but also people from far away provinces come to ask for his help. Not only is he talented in fortune-telling, Nguyen Thanh B is also famous for his golden heart, selling cheap phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizer to people, and donating large sums of money to charity. If he had been satisfied with the full life that fortune-telling brings, then perhaps B would not have had to stand in front of the bar today.

B is fond of gambling. To have money to satisfy his gambling pleasure, B has often borrowed the name of a fortune teller to trick people into taking money to serve his gambling pleasure. In 1998, Nguyen Thanh B was sentenced to 5 years in prison by the Supreme People's Court of Appeal for "fraudulent appropriation of property". In May 2012, the Yen Thanh District People's Court sentenced him to 9 months in prison with a suspended sentence for "gambling". It was thought that after two violations, B would know how to stop, but gambling easily draws people into a drunken stupor with no way out. The game of winning and losing with small money makes them want to play big, and the amount of money B has appropriated from people who come to B for fortune telling has also increased day by day to satisfy the gambler's thirst. All of B's ​​actions would not have been exposed if this time the person B aimed to defraud was not someone working in the legal field.



Illustration: Hong Toai.

Knowing that B has the ability to tell fortunes, on April 15, 2012, Ms. M and her husband (Vinh City) went to B's house in Khanh Thanh commune, Yen Thanh to ask him to tell them about their children. After reading, B said, "You will definitely get pregnant in the 5th lunar month of 2012, so don't worry." In the 5th lunar month, B proactively texted Ms. M to ask if she was pregnant yet. When Ms. M said she wasn't, on August 10, 2012, Nguyen Thanh B called Ms. M to make an appointment to come back on August 19. When he went, remember to bring a deck of cards, a handful of soil (at his house) and a new notebook. On time, Ms. M and her husband went to B's house with the things they had prepared. B told Ms. M and her husband to shuffle the cards, then take a blank piece of paper from the notebook, go outside to write, then fold it up and put it in a bag, telling them to open it and read it when they got home.

Believing B's words, Ms. M and her husband went home and did as they were told, they saw the words: "The land is not peaceful, if not resolved, there will be great disaster". Before Ms. M could ask, Nguyen Thanh B called Ms. M to ask what was written on the paper. Ms. M repeated the content written on the paper, after listening, Nguyen Thanh B said "it's a big deal, wait a moment and call the Tay Ninh Holy See to ask for direction to resolve it". At about 12 noon on August 19, 2012, Nguyen Thanh B called Ms. M to prepare a crowbar and a shovel to dig the land and made an appointment to go to Vinh at exactly 1 pm the same day. When entering Ms. M's house, B walked around the entire residential area and said "the monks have given us the diagram". B had prepared the diagram in advance. When choosing a location to dig in an independent room, B dug a hole about 0.4m wide and about 0.7m deep. At that time, B told Ms. M and her husband to go in and burn incense and open the door to get a pipe of tobacco, but in reality, B went to get a plastic plate with 6 yellow lotus petals that he had prepared in advance and secretly put it in the hole being dug. Then B continued to dig the hole and said, "Here it is, there are about 3 quintals of gold worth about 250 billion VND." At that time, Nguyen Thanh B went up to cover the soil and said, "Absolutely do not open it to see, do not let anyone know, otherwise it will lose its sacredness and also affect human life." When all 3 people went in to drink water in the house, B said that to get the gold, only the Tay Ninh Holy See could perform the ceremony, and money had to be spent for the ceremony.

Then B went home and continuously texted Ms. M, saying that the priests said that there had to be a small ceremony to do it. When Ms. M and her husband asked how much the ceremony would cost, B said it would cost 5 billion VND. Ms. M asked where she could get that much money, and B said, "There has to be a ceremony to send off the spirit and have peace for the family."

After many phone calls, B said that they had to have at least 1 billion VND and transfer it immediately if they did not encounter any problems. Too scared, Ms. M and her husband listened to B's advice and transferred 490,000,000 VND to the bank using the ID card of B's ​​acquaintance. After transferring the money as B said, B made an appointment for Ms. M and her husband to come to perform the ceremony on August 23. On August 23, B still did not come to perform the ceremony. When they called to ask, B made an appointment for August 31. On August 31, B still did not come. Suspecting that they had been scammed, Ms. M and her husband went to B's house to demand their money back. B wrote an IOU for them and promised to pay them on September 4, 2012 if they could not get the gold from the ground. That afternoon, Ms. M went home and dug a hole in the ground and found only a yellow plastic disk but no other assets, so she filed a complaint against B for fraud.

At the trial, Nguyen Thanh B bowed his head and admitted his guilt. B admitted that he had no supernatural fortune-telling ability and that his only purpose was to deceive people for money. After reviewing the entire case file, the Court sentenced the defendant to 8 years and 3 months in prison for "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

The case is both a lesson for those who take advantage of others' trust for their own benefit like B, and a lesson for those who are gullible and believe in superstition without judgment and thought.

Mai Hoa (Contributor)