Nghe An: 'Land broker' created fake documents to fraudulently sell real estate worth more than 17 billion VND

On May 8, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened the first instance trial of defendant Mai Van Minh (born 1995), residing in Nghi Phong commune, Nghi Loc district (now Vinh city) for the crime of fraud and appropriation of property.

The indictment shows that due to losses in business investments, Mai Van Minh borrowed money from many people, leading to debt.

Since August 2023, while working as a real estate broker, Minh has met many people who want to do land procedures. Taking advantage of the victims being elderly and weak, lacking knowledge of land procedures and taking advantage of the victims' trust, Minh came up with the idea of ​​appropriating property.

Minh used blank A4 papers without any content, tricked the victims into signing at the bottom of the page, signed and rolled his fingerprints on the third page of the Land Use Rights Transfer Contract, and lied that these were the procedures for dividing the plot, donating land for inter-village roads and transferring land use rights to the victims.

Because they trusted Minh as a knowledgeable real estate broker and believed that this person was doing the land-related procedures according to their wishes, the victims agreed to sign the documents Minh gave them without reading and checking the content.

After the victims signed the above documents, Minh took the documents to a notary office to complete the procedures. Then, Mai Van Minh brought the documents to the One-Stop Department of Nghi Loc District People's Committee to submit and complete the procedures to transfer the names and land use from the victims to his name. After that, Minh sold those plots of land to others to get money to pay off debts and spend.

The investigation agency determined that from August 2023 to January 2024, using the above fraudulent tricks, Minh transferred 3 plots of land of three victims in Nghi Phong commune, with a total value of more than 17.7 billion VND.

In which, a plot of land of 1,062m²worth more than 4.1 billion VND; land plot has an area of ​​1,849m2², worth more than 10 billion VND; and a plot of land 630m wide²worth more than 3.2 billion VND.

At the trial, the defendant admitted his crime and expressed remorse. The defendant apologized to the victims and those involved.

After comprehensively reviewing the case, the People's Court sentenced defendant Mai Van Minh to 17 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property.