11 years in prison for man who defrauded over 1 billion VND using a job placement scam.

• April 19, 2012 09:43

(Baonghean.vn) -On the afternoon of April 18th, the Nghe An Provincial People's Court held a first-instance criminal trial to hear the case of fraud and appropriation of property against Duong Thi Tuyet (born in 1952, residing in Hung Loc commune, Vinh City).

The indictment from the Prosecutor's Office stated: Although a retired teacher, Duong Thi Tuyet boasted about having many connections who could help secure jobs. Believing Tuyet, from August 2011, Mr. Tran Xuan Huong (residing in Dien Chau district) brought 59 sets of application documents and 814 million VND to Tuyet to ask her to help his children and relatives in the area find jobs. After receiving the money and documents from Huong, Tuyet pocketed the money and spent it without using any of the 59 application documents to secure jobs. After waiting too long without results, Mr. Huong confronted Tuyet to demand his money back. Tuyet promised to return the entire amount, but by October 2011, she had only returned 184 million VND.

Despite being relentlessly pursued by Mr. Huong for repayment, Tuyet did not stop but continued to use the same tactics to swindle 11 more victims, each losing at least 20 million VND, and some losing more than 60 million VND. After giving Tuyet money but failing to secure jobs, the victims tried to contact Tuyet to get their money back but were unsuccessful, so they collectively filed complaints with the authorities. On November 13, 2011, Duong Thi Tuyet was arrested.

At the trial, Tuyet confessed honestly and promised to repay all the money she had embezzled from the victims. Recognizing that the defendant had shown remorse and partially mitigated the consequences of her actions (at that time, Duong Thi Tuyet had repaid 184 million VND out of a total of 1.112 billion VND embezzled from the victims), the court sentenced Duong Thi Tuyet to 11 years in prison and ordered her to repay the entire amount of money embezzled.

Ha Linh