Female tycoon cheated of 288 billion VND by barber

On May 7, after 3 years of additional investigation, Ho Chi Minh City People's Court reopened the trial of Pham Thi Thuy Tien (42 years old) for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property.

Tien is a hairdresser in Tan Phu district. In mid-2010, she met Ms. Thanh, a rich woman in District 3. Tien claimed to be the director of a company that sells cosmetics and oil filters, and also provides bank loan repayment services, to borrow money from her.

Tien took the rich woman to meet her brother, boasting that she was an American Vietnamese who owned an oil refinery in Soc Trang. He would soon transfer about 400 million USD to Vietnam to do business. If Ms. Thanh's business encountered any problems, he would step in to help.

After a period of acquaintance, Tien used the excuse of needing urgent capital to import machinery while her brother had not yet sent money back, and borrowed from Ms. Thanh at an interest rate of 21% per month. She promised that if Ms. Thanh wanted to withdraw the capital, she only needed to notify 20 days in advance.

From late 2010 to April 2011, the female tycoon repeatedly transferred money into the account and gave Tien cash totaling 288 billion VND. She then used this money to pay interest to Ms. Thanh. The rest, Tien gave to her sister, brother and some people to borrow for business. As for her lover, Tien "helped" more than 80 billion VND.

In mid-2011, Ms. Thanh wanted to withdraw her capital but repeatedly asked Tien not to pay, only giving her a BMW worth nearly 3 billion.The investigation agency determined that the money Tien gave to others for business was a civil transaction, so there was no basis to criminally prosecute these people.

In court, Tien admitted to his crime and said he used most of the loan money to pay interest to Ms. Thanh, a total of 173 billion.

Summoned to court as a person with related rights and obligations, Tien's lover only admitted to taking 900 million VND that she gave him to spend, the rest was an investment and business relationship between the two.

After deliberation, the panel sentenced Tien to life in prison. After deducting the principal and interest, Tien was forced to pay the victim an additional 78 billion VND in debt. The court also confiscated 900 million VND from Tien's lover.