'Super scammer' couple gets debt payment from tycoon

The real estate tycoon was cheated out of nearly 100 billion VND by Van and his wife. The court allowed him to receive his property back and pay the other victims on their behalf.

On October 16, after a week of trial and deliberation, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced La Thi Thuy Van (61 years old) to life in prison, Lam Phuc Lam (59 years old, Van's husband) to 20 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property.

More than 60 people with related rights and obligations accused Van and his wife of appropriating more than 191 billion VND, which was determined by the investigation agency to be a civil relationship. The panel of judges gave them the right to sue in other cases.

The court accepted the agreement between Van and his wife with the biggest victim in the case - Mr. Tiec, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tin Nghia Construction, Service and Housing Business Joint Stock Company.

Accordingly, Mr. Tiec was given the house at 64 Nguyen Van Troi (which Van and his wife had bought from the residents and asked him to contribute capital to the project and then appropriated the money). He was obliged to pay nearly 30 billion VND on behalf of the defendants to two other victims and a related person; and at the same time, negotiate with some remaining households in the house to complete the procedures for granting ownership certificates.

During the trial, Van and her husband requested the court to resolve the matter by handing over the entire house at 64 Nguyen Van Troi to Mr. Tiec. He is obligated to pay the debts of others on behalf of the couple.

Van and his wife listen to the verdict. Photo: Hai Duyen.

The panel of judges determined that although Van and his wife did not admit to the fraud, the investigation results and evidence showed that the defendants used a mortgaged house or received capital contributions from many people to appropriate a large amount of money.

According to the accusation, around 2005, Van knew that the HCM City People's Committee planned to sell the villa-style townhouses at 64 Nguyen Van Troi Street (Phu Nhuan District) to 20 households who were renting. Although they had not yet been granted ownership certificates, Van and his wife still offered to buy them back to do the project for nearly 3,300 taels of gold and 900 million VND.

To have money to buy, Van and his wife used this real estate to sign capital contribution, sale and mortgage contracts with 11 organizations and individuals, receiving hundreds of billions of dong.

In particular, Van and his wife used the records of 20 mortgaged apartments to lend Ms. Duong Thi Bach Diep twice, totaling nearly 2,500 taels of gold; and at the same time sold them to many people, receiving tens of billions of dong.

In early 2007, the couple met Mr. Tiec and said they had bought the house at 64 Nguyen Van Troi, which had not yet been sold or mortgaged to anyone, and asked the real estate tycoon to contribute capital to the project. Mr. Tiec agreed to pay Van 33 billion VND in advance.

During this time, when it was discovered that Van and his wife had mortgaged the house to many people, Ms. Diep and her previous partners reported it to the police. Van and his wife then received an additional 50 billion VND in capital contribution from Mr. Tiec. Using this money to pay Ms. Diep and some other people, Van and his wife were allowed to withdraw their complaint.

In addition, Van and his wife also received 8 billion VND from Mr. Tiec in the sale of a house on Nguyen Van Dau Street, Binh Thanh District.

Regarding the fact that Van received a deposit of 230 taels of gold from this tycoon to buy the villa at 293A Nguyen Van Troi but then transacted with other people, the investigation agency determined that it was a civil relationship.

More than 20 years ago, while serving a sentence for fraud, Van met Lam and became friends. After being released from prison, the two became husband and wife and continued to commit more sophisticated and large-scale fraud.

According to VNE