In debt because of falling into the trap of fake Department of Home Affairs officials

Le Quang Hoa (39 years old), originally from Bong Khe commune, Con Cuong district. For many years now, Hoa has been living and temporarily residing in Yen Giang block, Vinh Tan ward, Vinh city.

Although he did not have a stable job, since 2016, Hoa had the idea of ​​defrauding and appropriating property by lying that he was an officer of the Nghe An Provincial Department of Internal Affairs or a Vinh City Police officer. Hoa "bragged" that he had connections with many people, held positions and powers in the province, so he could "run" to get jobs at state agencies in Nghe An province.

Defendant Le Quang Hoa. Photo: Tran Vu

Hoa also agreed to "run" job transfers from other provinces and cities to Nghe An, and if they wanted to get a job, they had to pay Hoa money. With the above trick, Le Quang Hoa defrauded and appropriated the assets of 11 people in Nghe An and Ha Tinh with a total amount of nearly 3 billion VND.

In early 2017, Hoa tricked Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh H.'s daughter (residing in Huong Khe town, Huong Khe district, Ha Tinh) into getting a job as an accountant at the Nghe An Economic Project Board, under the Department of Planning and Investment of Nghe An province. Hoa took 500 million VND from Ms. H. for personal expenses, but when the incident was exposed, he only paid Ms. H. 270 million VND.

Hoa also defrauded his fellow students. In July 2017, when Hoa introduced himself as working at the Department of Personnel Organization - Department of Home Affairs of Nghe An province, Mr. NKT (Hoa's old classmate) asked Hoa to transfer his sister-in-law, a teacher in Dong Thap province, to work as a teacher in Nghi Loc district for 300 million VND. However, after receiving the money, Hoa did not apply for a job as promised but used the money for personal expenses.

At the first instance trial of Le Quang Hoa for “fraudulent appropriation of property”, the defendant expressed remorse but said that he had spent all the money he had embezzled on his own pleasures and was unable to return it to the victims. Many victims said that their families were in dire straits because they had borrowed money from Hoa. The first instance court sentenced the defendant Hoa to 17 years in prison for “fraudulent appropriation of property”. The court also ordered the defendant to return the embezzled money to the victims.

After that, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh H. was one of the 11 victims who filed an appeal requesting an increase in the sentence for the defendant, and at the same time requested the court to clarify what the defendant had used the large amount of money he had appropriated from the victims for in such a short period of time. This victim also provided information that the defendant's family had just sold their house in Vinh City for a large sum of money but refused to compensate the victims.

At the trial, Hoa said that the house in Vinh City that the victim mentioned was only a rented house, so it was not possible that he had sold it for a large sum of money. The defendant promised to soon return the money he had appropriated to Ms. H.

The Court of Appeal determined that the first instance verdict against Le Quang Hoa was correct in its judgment. The appeal requests of the victim in this case were not sufficiently grounded. Therefore, the court did not accept the victim’s appeal and upheld the 17-year prison sentence for Le Quang Hoa for the crime of “fraudulent appropriation of property”.