Exposing the scheme of those impersonating officials to extort money.

From the complaint letters…
In late 2018, the Criminal Police Department received a complaint from Ms. MH in Huong Khe town, Huong Khe district (Ha Tinh province) regarding being defrauded of over 200 million VND by an individual named Le Quang Hoa. According to Ms. MH's statement, in 2017, she met Hoa through an acquaintance. Knowing that Ms. MH's daughter had recently graduated and was looking for a job, Le Quang Hoa introduced himself as an official from the Department of Internal Affairs and claimed he could "help" her get a job at the Nghe An Economic Project Management Board under the Department of Planning and Investment of Nghe An province for 500 million VND.
Trusting Hoa, Ms. MH gave him money and her daughter's job application documents, but after the promised date, he still hadn't informed her that he had started working. Ms. MH called him, but Hoa avoided her calls and cut off all contact. Realizing his actions had been exposed, Hoa returned 270 million VND to Ms. MH to prevent her from reporting him to the police and promised to return the remaining amount. However, Hoa then disappeared again.

At the same time, several complaints were sent to the police investigation agencies of several districts in the area, such as Con Cuong and Nghi Loc, with similar allegations to Ms. MH. All of them had lost money in the form of job placement scams orchestrated by Le Quang Hoa. Recognizing this as an organized fraud case, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Provincial Police coordinated with the police in the districts to verify and identify the accused.
The main suspect is Le Quang Hoa (born in 1980), residing in Bong Khe commune, Con Cuong district, Nghe An province. It is known that at the time of the crime, Le Quang Hoa was unemployed. However, despite being unemployed and without a stable job, he built a perfect facade, cultivating close relationships with several influential people who could secure employment for him. Through his glib tongue, Hoa swindled billions of dong from numerous people seeking jobs.
Hoa not only scammed strangers like Mrs. MH,misappropriation of propertyThis included his brothers and friends. Mr. Nguyen KT (residing in Nghi Loc district) was Hoa's high school classmate. During a reunion in July 2017, when Hoa introduced himself as currently working at the Personnel and Organization Department of the Nghe An Provincial Department of Internal Affairs and said he could help anyone find a job or transfer, Mr. T. immediately trusted his former classmate without hesitation.
Mr. T asked Hoa to help his sister-in-law, a teacher in Dong Thap province, transfer to a teaching position in Nghi Loc district. Hoa quoted a price of 300 million VND.
On August 25, 2017, at Hoa's request, Mr. T. transferred his sister-in-law's job transfer application to Hoa. Although Hoa kept the documents at home after receiving them, she messaged Mr. T. saying that the application had been approved by the Nghe An Department of Education and Training and requested him to transfer money to Hoa to process the paperwork. On August 29, 2017, Mr. T. transferred 300 million VND to Hoa's account. After misappropriating the money, Hoa spent it all on personal expenses.
On July 26, 2018, Hoa continued to lie to Mr. T., claiming that his sister-in-law had been granted a special transfer and demanding an additional 40 million VND to obtain the transfer decision. Mr. T. transferred another 40 million VND to Hoa. Le Quang Hoa defrauded Mr. T. of a total of 340 million VND.
Not only that, Hoa also boasted that he was a police officer working in Vinh City and therefore had many connections. Having known each other for many years, Hoa always helped Ms. Nguyen Thuy H. (from Vinh City) whenever she asked for his help, so Ms. H. trusted him completely. In early 2017, knowing that Ms. H.'s sister needed a job, Hoa offered to help her get a job at the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for a fee of 300 million VND.
Trusting Hoa, at her home, Ms. H. handed over all the documents along with 300 million VND and received a promise from Hoa that a decision would be made around May 2018. However, when the deadline arrived, nothing happened and she couldn't contact Hoa either. Ms. H. realized she had been scammed and filed a complaint with the police.
Investigators determined that, using the above methods, from April 2016 to December 2018, Le Quang Hoa defrauded and misappropriated assets from 11 people in the two provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh, totaling nearly 3 billion VND.
...to blatant tactics
In March 2019, after verifying and consolidating evidence, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Provincial Police issued an arrest warrant for Le Quang Hoa to facilitate the investigation. At the investigative agency, Hoa initially confessed to appropriating property from victims under the guise of job placement.

Due to a lack of stable employment and personal debt, when Hoa learned about the recruitment policies for civil servants and public employees in departments and agencies under the People's Committee of Nghe An province, he conceived the idea of ​​defrauding and appropriating property. To carry out this plan, Hoa impersonated an official from the Department of Internal Affairs of Nghe An province or an officer from the Vinh City Police Department, claiming to have close relationships with people in positions of power and authority in the departments and agencies of the People's Committee of Nghe An province, and therefore being able to secure jobs for many people in state agencies in the province, or arrange transfers from other provinces and cities nationwide to Nghe An.
The suspect, despite lacking a stable job, always presented himself as polite and successful. To easily ensnare his victims, Le Quang Hoa constantly portrayed himself on social media as someone with connections to high-ranking officials by taking photos with them or frequently posting pictures of his affluent lifestyle, including coffee dates with people of social standing. Furthermore, to enhance his image, Le Quang Hoa spared no expense in renting luxury cars for himself when meeting clients.
According to Mr. Pham Van Cong (a neighbor of Hoa's), Hoa was quite intelligent, sociable, and cheerful back home. His parents were farmers. However, due to studying and working elsewhere, Hoa spent very little time in the local area. When the incident occurred, many people in the neighborhood were extremely surprised.
In court, the defendant admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment. Regarding the money he embezzled from the victims, Hoa claimed he spent it on personal matters, but did not specify. This greatly angered the victims attending the trial.
Speaking in court, the victims demanded that Le Quang Hoa return the money he had embezzled. Many victims stated that they had borrowed money from various sources to pay Hoa, and are currently paying interest, causing them hardship and disruption to their lives because they believed the scammer's words. It is known that the victims in this case were all acquaintances or friends of Hoa. Therefore, the blatant fraud perpetrated by Hoa has further angered the victims.
Mr. Nguyen Van Q., the teacher of Hoa's son, shared: "When I heard that Hoa would help my sister get a job, I trusted her completely. Throughout the process, we even had meals and socialized together many times, but I never imagined that Hoa would deceive even her son's teacher."
It is known that in 2008, Le Quang Hoa was sentenced by the Vinh City People's Court to 9 months of suspended imprisonment for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".
The court determined that the defendant's actions violated the law. Driven by greed, he disregarded ethical principles and defrauded and misappropriated property from many people. The amount of money the defendant stole from the victims was substantial. However, the victims also bore some responsibility for trusting him and failing to carefully consider the situation, leading to financial loss and other misfortunes. Considering all aspects of the case, the court sentenced Le Quang Hoa to 17 years in prison for "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and ordered him to return all the money he had stolen from the victims.
Through this case, the court also advises the general public to learn from this incident and increase their vigilance to avoid being exploited by unscrupulous individuals.

An Quynh