Former female official defrauds people of billions of dong and then flees.

(Baonghean.vn) - Taking advantage of the trust and gullibility of the people, and posing as a member of the Standing Committee of the Women's Association and the Farmers' Association of Quynh Thach commune, Quynh Luu district, Nguyen Thi Van defrauded and misappropriated property amounting to billions of VND.

On December 19th, the Quỳnh Lưu District Police announced that they had issued a decision to initiate a criminal case and prosecute Nguyễn Thị Vân (born in 1963), residing in Hamlet 3, Quỳnh Thạch Commune, Quỳnh Lưu District, for the crime of fraud and appropriation of property.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Van, Quynh Thach commune, Quynh Luu district. Photo: Anh Quan

Previously, the Quỳnh Lưu District Police received complaints from several residents of Quỳnh Thạch commune alleging that Ms. Nguyễn Thị Vân, an official of the Women's Association and the Farmers' Association of Quỳnh Thạch commune, had defrauded them of billions of VND. The district police established a special investigation to clarify the matter.

Accordingly, with the trust of the local government and the people in the commune, since 2003 Ms. Van has been elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Women's Association and a member of the Standing Committee and treasurer of the Farmers' Association of Quynh Thach commune. Ms. Van is considered a responsible person in her work.

In 2003, the Farmers' Association of Quynh Thach commune established a Farmers' Support Fund to help farmers save money and borrow capital for business, especially for disadvantaged households to develop their economy. By 2011, due to ineffective operation, the Quynh Thach Commune Farmers' Support Fund ceased operations.

Although the fund had ceased operations for some time, since 2014 Ms. Van had continued to encourage people to deposit savings. To gain people's trust, she even created fake savings passbooks to issue to them.

Furthermore, Ms. Nguyen Thi Van also enticed people to use their land use right certificates (red books) to borrow money from banks and then give it to her for personal use. Even knowing that some households were planning to borrow from the bank, she suggested that they allow her to increase the loan amount, borrowing more than they actually needed.

After the people contacted the bank, she directly borrowed money from them. Using this method, from 2014 to the present, Nguyen Thi Van has defrauded people of more than 2 billion VND, with the largest loan being 100 million VND and the smallest being 30 million VND.

As her debts grew and she became unable to repay them, Nguyen Thi Van quit her job in April 2017. She informed the local authorities that she would be away for a while to deal with personal matters, but no one knew where she went.

Through professional investigative methods, the police persuaded the suspect to return to her hometown. On December 14th, the Quỳnh Lưu District Police issued an order to arrest and detain Nguyễn Thị Vân on charges of fraud and misappropriation of property.

Initially, the Quỳnh Lưu District Police have clarified the fraudulent appropriation of property. Regarding the actions of Nguyễn Thị Vân, the investigating agency has determined that she also shows signs of forging state seals and documents, and abusing trust to appropriate property.

According to the documents collected by the investigating agency, the amount of money that Ms. Van has embezzled to date is over 2 billion VND. Currently, the Criminal Investigation Department of the District Police has issued a decision to initiate a criminal case and prosecute Nguyen Thi Van for the act of "Fraudulent appropriation of property," while also focusing on clarifying two other acts: "Abuse of trust to appropriate property" and "Forgery of seals and documents of agencies and organizations."

Anh Quân