The job 'trap' and the 'trick' of a disabled woman to appropriate billions

The "spit selling" trick to appropriate billions of dong by "fake" Department of Home Affairs officials

Disabled since childhood with withered legs and unable to walk, Mac Thi Le Quyen (born 1984, from Ta Ca commune, Ky Son) is considered an example of overcoming circumstances. Growing up, Quyen did not accept her fate and found a way to "go down the mountain" to make a living. Fate once again did not smile on Quyen, this woman gave birth and raised her child alone.

Thanks to her little knowledge of computer science, Quyen opened a photocopy shop to earn a living. During this time, Quyen lived without marriage with a man and had another child. Quyen was generous and talkative, and because she was disabled and had a small child, many people sympathized with her and did not hesitate to help her whenever asked.

When Quyen built a decent house in Hamlet 6, Nghi Kim Commune (Vinh City), many people were happy and admired the determination to overcome the circumstances of this disabled woman. Therefore, when Quyen was arrested forjob scam, appropriating billions of dollars, making many people extremely surprised.

Defendant Mac Thi Le Quyen at the trial. Photo: Nhu Binh

The police agency clarified that from 2015 to 2019, Mac Thi Le Quyen committed fraud, appropriating more than 3.4 billion VND. Of which, the person who was appropriating at least 60 million VND, the most person 330 million VND. Quyen's trick was to "explode" herself as an official of the Department of Home Affairs of Nghe An province and boast of knowing many leaders of departments and branches, being able to "run jobs" in the health sector, education... or apply for hydropower projects in the area.

With only her ability to “gossip”, Quyen made 20 people in many localities in the province fall into her trap. To make the victims trust her more, Quyen promised the time to complete the work, the time to receive the recruitment decision, and the notice of acceptance to go to work.

In fact, when urged by the victims, with her IT experience, Quyen used official documents posted online to cut and paste the signatures and seals of agencies and organizations into recruitment decisions or job acceptance notices and then printed them out for the victims.

Knowing that Mr. Thai DT (born in 1989, residing in Yen Thanh district) wanted to apply for a position, Quyen proposed that she would apply for him to work at the Nghi Loc District People's Committee, costing 280 million VND, with a deposit of 80 million VND. This woman hired a motorbike taxi driver to call Mr. T., claiming to be the Chairman of the Nghi Loc District People's Committee, informing him that she had received his application and telling him to "rest assured".

Receiving a phone call from the “district chairman” himself, Mr. T. did not suspect anything when Quyen asked him to pay the agreed amount. Although it was a photocopy, Mr. T. was extremely happy when Quyen handed him the notice of being recruited as a civil servant with the seal and signature of the Chairman of the Nghi Loc District People's Committee bearing his name, not knowing that it was just a piece of scrap paper. Therefore, when Quyen asked for another 30 million to “thank” the leader, this man, despite having no money, still tried to borrow, giving Quyen 15 million in advance, and asking to owe the remaining amount.

Similarly, Ms. Vi Thi D. lost 160 million VND to Quyen to "run" for her child to be admitted to a school in Quy Chau district. Only when Ms. D.'s daughter brought the notice of acceptance of work with the seal and signature of the Department of Education and Training leader to the school to accept the job, was she shocked when the school confirmed that it had not received any decision from the competent authority to accept the teacher with the above name. At this time, the fraud of the "female officer of the Department of Internal Affairs" was exposed.

Poor father lost 130 million to get his son to work as a construction worker

Mr. Lo Van Q. (residing in Lang Khe commune, Con Cuong, Nghe An) has a son named Lo Van Th. (born in 1992), who graduated in electricity but could not find a job. One day in 2015, while visiting his aunt's house in Vinh city, Th. met Mac Thi Le Quyen. Knowing that Th. was looking for a job, Quyen introduced herself as an officer of the Department of Home Affairs, with a wide network of acquaintances, "out of respect for being an acquaintance", so she promised to apply for a job at the Ang hydropower plant operation team (Tuong Duong, Nghe An) with a cost of 130 million VND.

At this time, the Ban Ang hydropower plant was in the process of completion. Thinking that he would lose a sum of money but in return would have a stable job and a good income, Mr. Th. discussed with his parents to ask Quyen to "help". According to Quyen's request, within 1 day, Mr. Q.'s family borrowed enough 130 million VND to give to this "female officer of the Department of Internal Affairs".

Quyen did not dare to look up when hearing the victim's family request the court to strictly punish the defendant and force him to compensate for the entire amount of money he had embezzled. Photo: Nhu Binh

Holding the receipt with Quyen's firm promise, Mr. Q. was assured that his son would soon have a job and would pay off all his debts. A short time later, Mr. Th. was asked by Quyen to come to the Ban Ang hydroelectric plant to work. According to Quyen, because the plant was not yet completed, Mr. Th. would work as a construction worker for now, waiting to be sent to learn how to operate it so he could officially return to work.

“My son works as a construction worker and does other heavy work every day to keep up the hope of being accepted into the hydropower operation team. However, when others have been sent to learn how to operate and come back to work, my son has not been sent to learn as Quyen said,” Mr. Q. said.

When Mr. Q. questioned, Quyen said that because he was late, there were no more seats for the operation training course and suggested that he apply for a job at the Xoong Con hydropower plant (also in Tuong Duong district), promising that he would have a decision to start working after 3 months. However, after waiting for a long time, he was not allowed to go to the operation training course as originally agreed, and instead, Mr. Th. still had to work as a construction worker. Suspecting that he had fallen into a job scam, Mr. Q. went to see Quyen to ask for the money back, but this woman continued to make promises.

“The loan had to be paid back with interest, so when we found out that Quyen was not an officer of the Department of Home Affairs as introduced and was not able to get a job, we insisted on getting the money back. After much pressure, Quyen only paid me 10 million VND. I thought she was really an officer of the Department of Home Affairs and could get a job, but I lost 130 million VND and my child only got to work as a construction worker,” Mr. Q said bitterly.

This man requested the jury to severely punish Quyen for her crimes and require her to return all the money she had appropriated. However, Mac Thi Le Quyen has only compensated the victims a small part, Quyen has spent most of the money she appropriated and has nothing left to return.

The panel of judges determined that the victims were partly at fault in this case. Mac Thi Le Quyen had no function, duty or authority in arranging jobs for others, but she fraudulently introduced herself as working at the Nghe An Department of Home Affairs and knowing leaders of departments and branches in order to defraud and appropriate money from people who wanted to apply for jobs.

Mac Thi Le Quyen’s actions constituted the crime of “Fraudulent appropriation of property”. Considering the case as a whole, the panel sentenced Mac Thi Le Quyen to 20 years in prison and ordered her to return the entire amount of money she had misappropriated to the victims.

The act of using the seal and signature of the competent authority to insert into the acceptance notices, recruitment decisions, lists... by Mac Thi Le Quyen is to make the victim trust and hand over money. Therefore, there is no basis to prosecute Mac Thi Le Quyen for the crime of "Using the seal of an agency or organization".

Nhu Binh