The Long Slip of a Teacher

(Baonghean.vn) - Although she has only been in prison for a year, looking at Nguyen Thi Nhu standing in the dock now is very different from when she was a teacher at Quang Trung Primary School (Vinh City).

At the trial of Nguyen Thi Nhu, although her paternal and maternal families all lived in Vinh, very few people attended because everyone was probably too tired after the trial was postponed many times and people scrutinized and discussed it. As for Nhu, from the beginning to the end of the trial, she did not turn around once even though the people below were all very familiar to her. Occasionally, during the interrogation of the presiding judge, Nhu sobbed. However, that was not enough to comfort the victims sitting below, many of whom had considered Nhu a close sister, a colleague, a niece in the family...

Portrait of "super scammer" Nguyen Thi Nhu

The most indignant of them was Ms. Cung Thi H (residing in Tecco building) - who was scammed by Nhu of 550 million VND. She was the last person to arrive at this trial because she did not receive an invitation from the court, but when an acquaintance informed her, she immediately came. Before the trial, her voice was harsh: I was scammed by Nhu, the money lent to Nhu was all the money my husband and I saved our whole lives to buy a house for our child. Now that Nhu is in prison, I don't know who to call. Nhu's family must be responsible for paying me. Two years ago, although not really close to Nhu, when she saw that Nhu had good economic circumstances and family conditions (her mother was a kindergarten principal, her husband's parents were retired senior officers), when Nhu expressed her desire to borrow money to buy land and open a restaurant, Ms. H agreed to lend Nhu 250,000,000 VND. After that, seeing that Nhu paid the debt and interest on time, Ms. H lent Nhu 6 more times. I was cheated by Nhu. The money lent Nhu was all the money my husband and I had saved our whole lives to buy a house for our child. Now that Nhu is in prison, who can I complain to? Nhu's family must be responsible for paying me back.

Using similar tricks, Nhu defrauded 13 people of nearly 9 billion VND. The way Nhu gained people's trust was also very simple, that is, borrowing money at high interest rates and paying debts on time. After a few times of gaining credibility, Nhu began to be more "aggressive", some people trusted Nhu and mortgaged their houses and land to Nhu for loans. Even Nhu's aunt, Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich T (Block 11, Hong Son Ward), because she trusted Nhu too much, lent Nhu 1.1 billion VND so that Nhu could open a restaurant, do real estate business and open a self-driving car rental shop. In fact, these were all tricks of Nhu because according to Nhu's testimony before the trial council: Because the defendant borrowed from too many people at too high interest rates, he was unable to pay. When he saw many people coming to collect debts, the defendant ran around borrowing everywhere, taking from this place to cover that place...

One thing that was not in the indictment but was repeatedly mentioned by the judge during the questioning of the victims was that perhaps because of greed, many people unintentionally let Nhu take advantage of them and defraud them. In this case, by offering a very high interest rate (6%/month), dozens of times higher than the bank, Nhu easily "blinded" the greedy people.

Ms. Phan Thi C (Block 3, Cua Nam Ward) herself admitted: Because she saw that the interest Nhu paid was high, borrowing 100 million VND for 1 month, she got 18 million VND in interest, so she lost her vigilance. Unfortunately, this scam happened in 2009, 2010 and was warned many times by the authorities, but at present (especially in 2011), many people continue to be scammed in the same way. For Nhu, the 16-year prison sentence is really too heavy and too long because behind her, Nhu still has 2 small children who need someone to take care of. But, that is also a worthy lesson for Nhu and for those who disregard the law and morality to get rich illegally.

Song Hoang