Man in Nghe An defrauded people to go to the US, seized property

On September 30, in Nghe An, the Hanoi High People's Court opened an appeal trial of defendant Le Dinh Chinh (born 1984), residing in Hung Tay commune, Hung Nguyen district, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". The trial was opened due to the defendant's appeal.

According to the first instance verdict, in September 2019, Chinh met Ms. HTTN (born in 1983, residing in Lang Son) in Dak Lak province and introduced his family with 2 children residing and studying in the US. Chinh himself frequently traveled between Vietnam and the US and was able to bring people to the US to study and live.

Hearing Chinh say that, Ms. N. asked Chinh to help her two children go to the US. At this time, Chinh had the intention of taking possession of Ms. N.'s property, so he agreed.

Defendant Le Dinh Chinh in court. Photo: Tran Vu

Chinh told Ms. N. that the cost of going to the US would be 32,000 USD (equivalent to 742 million VND); at the same time, Chinh gave false information about the paperwork for those in need. Trusting her, from September 23 to November 6, 2019, Ms. N. transferred 476 million VND to Chinh.

Then, because she wanted to go live with her child, Ms. N. asked Chinh to take care of the procedures for her to travel to the US. Chinh accepted and gave her the cost. Trusting her, Ms. N. transferred more than 221 million VND to Chinh.

After receiving the money from Ms. N., Chinh spent it all on personal expenses. When Ms. N. called to urge him, Chinh gave many reasons and did not return the money or documents to Ms. N. On April 23, 2021, Ms. N. went to the police to report Chinh's crime. On the same day, Chinh went to the police to surrender.

The court of first instance sentenced defendant Le Dinh Chinh to 13 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property; forced the defendant to return the amount of money he had appropriated to the victim.

The defendant then filed an appeal for a reduced sentence. At the appeal court, Chinh stated that after the first instance trial, he had influenced the family to compensate the victim for all damages.

However, the defendant's family only provided valid documents for the 100 million VND transfer via bank. The nearly 500 million VND sent directly to Ms. N. did not have confirmation from the local authorities.

The Court of Appeal acknowledged that the defendant actively compensated the victim with 100 million VND, so it accepted the defendant’s appeal. The first instance judgment was revised from 13 years to 12 years and 6 months in prison for the crime of “Fraudulent appropriation of property”.