Hiding under the guise of studying abroad consulting, a fraud ring was set up to defraud more than 10 billion VND to illegally send people abroad.

On September 18, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first instance trial of 13 defendants on the charges of organizing others to flee abroad, forging seals, and using fake documents of agencies and organizations.

The defendants prosecuted include: Nguyen Thi Oanh (born 1985), Bui Thi Anh Tuyet (born 1984), Le Thi Huong (born 1992), Nguyen Thi Ngoc (born 1994), Vo Thi Huong (born 1995), Nguyen Quang Tuyen (born 1988), Nguyen Cong Anh (born 1978), Bui Xuan Thanh (born 1996), Tran Thi Tuyet (born 1986), all residing in Nghe An province.

Defendants Jeong Woo Hyun (born 1974, Korean nationality), Bui Van Manh (born 1980, residing in Ninh Binh), Bui Thi Thiem (born 1990, residing in Hai Duong), Pham Van Dan (born 1988, residing in Quang Binh).

According to the case file, AHD International Cooperation Joint Stock Company was granted a business license by the Nghe An Department of Education and Training to provide study abroad consulting services; it was not granted a license by the competent authority to operate employment services or services to send people abroad.

However, Nguyen Thi Oanh and Bui Van Manh used the name of AHD Company to cooperate and connect with many individuals across the country and Jeong Woo Hyun to organize sending Vietnamese people abroad for tourism, trade, study abroad... then stay illegally to work.

After agreeing on the form of sending people abroad, the subjects informed Tuyet, Huong, Ngoc, Dan, Huong, and Tai to advertise and introduce forms of organizing to send people to work in Korea, Malaysia, and Australia.

The investigation agency determined that from May 2022 to December 2023, the subjects had repeatedly organized for 25 workers to illegally work in South Korea, Malaysia, and Australia.

Specifically, Oanh, Manh, and Tuyet received the documents and nearly 1.4 billion VND from 4 workers, then transferred nearly 800 million VND to Jeong Woo Hyun and Thiem to organize for them to go to Korea as tourists and then stay illegally to work. However, because they could not enter Korea, the workers had to return to Vietnam.

In addition, Oanh and Manh also directed their subordinates to prepare documents and procedures for 20 workers with a total amount of more than 8 billion VND, 25,500 USD and 4,000 AUD to organize a trip to Australia by going to Malaysia - Sri Lanka to study English to complete exit procedures to Australia but failed.

The investigation agency also clarified that in order to organize for 20 people to go to Australia, the couple Oanh and Manh directed their subordinates to instruct the workers to contact the subjects in the network to order fake documents to submit to the company and prepare exit documents.

At the trial, the defendants admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment. As the first defendant, Nguyen Thi Oanh confessed to using many deceitful tricks to organize the illegal sending of people abroad.

The defendants realized their actions were wrong and asked the court to consider reducing their sentences.

After considering the role of each defendant in the case, the People's Court sentenced Nguyen Thi Oanh to 8 years in prison for organizing others to flee abroad, and 3 years in prison for using fake documents of agencies and organizations; the total sentence is 11 years in prison.

Sentenced defendant Bui Van Manh to 6 years in prison for the crime of organizing others to flee abroad, 3 years in prison for the crime of using fake documents of organizations; the total sentence is 9 years in prison.

Defendant Bui Thi Anh Tuyet was sentenced to 5 years in prison for organizing others to flee abroad, and 3 years in prison for using fake documents of organizations; the total sentence is 8 years in prison.

The two defendants Nguyen Thi Ngoc and Vo Thi Huong each received 30 months in prison; the defendant Le Thi Huong received a 27-month prison sentence for two crimes.

For the crime of organizing others to flee abroad, the court sentenced defendant Jeong Woo Hyun to 18 months in prison, Pham Van Dan to 18 months in prison with a suspended sentence, and Bui Thi Thiem to 15 months in prison with a suspended sentence.

For the crime of Forging seals and documents of agencies and organizations, the court sentenced Nguyen Quang Tuyen to 30 months in prison, Nguyen Cong Anh to 30 months in prison, Bui Xuan Thanh to 24 months in prison, and Tran Thi Tuyet to 18 months in prison with a suspended sentence.