The fake gold drama of the tenant and the billion-dollar scam
Having fallen into gambling, Le Thi Nu created a sophisticated scenario to defraud the kind landlord couple. Based on their close relationship after renting the house, Nu started her plan by bringing fake gold to ask them to keep it for her. Shortly after, this woman used this "gold", along with many other fake gold, as collateral for loans, appropriating nearly 2.1 billion VND.
19 times using fake gold as collateral to borrow real money
Le Thi Nu (born in 1976, from Ha Tinh), residing in Van Hoi commune, Ninh Giang district (Hai Duong) did not have a stable job. After many times changing her rental place, in August 2019, Nu came to the house of Ms. Ho Thi C. (born in 1953, residing in Hung Binh ward, Vinh city) to rent a room to stay. During her stay, Nu often visited and cared for Ms. C.
After a period of familiarity, on August 19, 2020, Nu took a bag containing many necklaces, bracelets, gold bracelets, and gold rings and asked Ms. C. to keep them for her, saying that "there is no place to keep them in my rented room, I'm afraid of losing them". However, the landlady refused because she was afraid of "sending fake gold and saying it's real gold".
Two days later, when Mrs. C. went to the market, only her hard-of-hearing husband was at home, so Nu took the gold and asked him to keep it for her. Out of respect, he kept the gold, but when his wife returned from the market, her husband told her what had happened. At this time, Mrs. C. continued to question whether the gold was real or fake, and Nu told the landlord and his wife: "Where is the fake gold?" After that, Mrs. C. and her husband said nothing and kept the gold for the woman who rented the room.
About a month later, Le Thi Nu asked Mrs. C. and her husband to borrow 300 million VND to trade in land. Nu promised to pay 13% interest per month and use the gold deposited earlier as collateral. At first, Mrs. C. did not agree, but after listening to Nu's story, she agreed and went to the bank to withdraw 300 million VND for Nu to borrow.
After that, Le Thi Nu continued to borrow money from Mrs. C. and her husband many times. Each time she borrowed, Nu bought fake gold, packaged it, sealed it, and brought it to Mrs. C.'s house as collateral. Sometimes, to avoid suspicion, Nu lied to Mrs. C. that the gold belonged to someone else and asked her to mortgage it for a loan.
After lending money to Le Thi Nu 19 times but not seeing her pay interest, the landlord and his wife asked Nu to take the mortgaged gold to a gold shop to determine whether the gold was real or fake. At first, Nu pretended that she had done nothing wrong and confidently went with Mrs. C. to the gold shop. However, Nu later admitted that the gold was fake, bought at markets in Vinh City.
The investigation agency determined that, with the above tricks, from October 7, 2020 to March 19, 2023, Le Thi Nu appropriated nearly 2.1 billion VND from Ms. Ho Thi C. and her husband. After that, the landlord and his wife repeatedly asked the woman to return the defrauded money, but so far she has only paid 90 million VND. With the above crime, Le Thi Nu was prosecuted and brought to trial for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property. In court, the defendant initially gave a evasive statement, blaming her low level of education to justify her crime. After being reminded by the panel of judges, the defendant admitted to using fake gold to defraud the landlord and his wife into borrowing real money.
The woman explained that because her husband went to work abroad, the mother and children rented a room at Mrs. C's house to live. During their stay, they realized that the landlord couple were old and kind, so they approached them to commit fraud.
During the process of mortgaging the fake gold, the defendant used many different tricks. Initially, the defendant asked to borrow money for himself to invest in real estate. Later, the defendant lied that the gold belonged to his friends, and they asked him to mortgage it to borrow money for work. Nu's purpose was to avoid suspicion from Mrs. C. and her husband.
The female defendant spent the money she had defrauded and gambled. In addition, Nu also confessed that she had used 200 million VND to fraudulently obtain the "red book" of the land plot that she and her husband had previously mortgaged to the bank to borrow money for her husband to go work abroad. After the incident was discovered, Nu used that "red book" to deduct the debt for the victim. However, to date, the transfer of the above land plot has not been carried out because the defendant's husband is working abroad.
Attending the trial as victims, Mrs. C. and her husband stated that they did not expect that their kindness would be abused by the tenant. Mrs. C. said that when Nu first came to stay, because she was raising her child alone and her husband was away, her grandparents always treated her well. Sometimes they even looked after the child for the defendant and helped with daily chores. However, the landlord couple did not expect that Nu had approached them with bad intentions and then committed fraud for many years. Therefore, when they learned the truth, they were extremely shocked.
The victim also added that out of the 19 times he lent Nu money, the defendant only paid interest twice as initially promised. The remaining times, the defendant made up many excuses to delay and not pay interest. Each time she brought gold over, Nu gave many reasons, complaining about her hardships to ask for help from her grandparents. Out of compassion and trust, the landlord and his wife gave Nu money many times. When the amount given to Nu reached nearly 2.1 billion VND, the grandparents discovered the deceitful behavior of the tenant.
At the trial, the couple requested the defendant to return all the money he had embezzled so that they could soon stabilize their lives and their mental health. Because the defendant's actions had turned their family life upside down. The victim himself was old and in poor health, but he had to endure a great shock.
Meeting the landlord and his wife at the trial, the defendant apologized. The female defendant admitted that she was unethical for causing such an incident, even though her grandparents were the ones who had helped her and her mother unconditionally.
During the trial, the judge also reminded the defendant of his wrongdoings and violations of the law. The defendant was healthy, but refused to work for a living and instead took advantage of the kindness of the elderly couple to commit a sophisticated fraud. “You should live according to the law, to set an example for your children in the future,” the judge told the defendant.
The panel of judges determined that the defendant’s actions were dangerous to society and violated the law. The defendant violated the property rights of others protected by law. The defendant’s criminal actions had a major impact on security, order, and people’s lives, so a severe sentence was needed to deter and educate the defendant.
After a comprehensive review of the case, the panel sentenced defendant Le Thi Nu to 16 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property. In terms of civil matters, the court ordered the defendant to compensate the victim in full.
After 19 times of taking advantage of the trust and kindness of the landlord couple to commit fraud, the defendant finally had to face the judgment of the law and the price of deception. The case not only closed a series of sophisticated frauds, but also sounded a warning bell: kindness, if not accompanied by alertness, can become a trap for the giver. In social relationships, especially those related to money and property, caution is always necessary to protect oneself.
