Former land officials and their wives 'joined forces' to defraud and appropriate billions
(Baonghean.vn) - By persuading relatives, friends and colleagues to contribute capital to buy land, transfer and sell it to others for profit, the couple Tran Van Giang and Nguyen Thi Tham defrauded and appropriated billions of dong from many victims.
On April 2, 2024, after many days of prolonged deliberation, the People's Court of Nghe An province decided to declare the first instance criminal case against the defendants Tran Van Giang (born 1984) - a former cadastral officer of a ward in Vinh city and his wife Nguyen Thi Tham (born 1985), both residing in Truong Thi ward, Vinh city, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".
According to the case, due to not having money to pay debts and personal expenses, from the beginning of January 2021 to May 2022, the couple Tran Van Giang and Nguyen Thi Tham used tricks to trick relatives, friends and colleagues into investing capital to buy land, transfer and sell to others for profit.
After receiving the money from the victims, Giang and Tham did not use the money to buy land but to pay off debts and for family consumption. To gain the victims' trust, at the time of the initial investment, Giang and his wife transferred the principal, transferred more money and lied that it was profit so that the victims would trust and continue to invest more.
In addition, Nguyen Thi Tham also tricked a teacher who was teaching in Thanh Chuong district into transferring her job to Vinh city. With this trick, Giang and Tham defrauded 7 victims of more than 9.7 billion VND. The person who lost the most was 3.7 billion VND, and the person who lost the least was 270 million VND.
At the trial, the defendants admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment. Defendant Giang said that he only borrowed money with interest and the land investment capital contribution was agreed upon by both parties and he did not contribute capital.
Considering the case in its entirety, the court sentenced defendant Tran Van Giang to life in prison and Nguyen Thi Tham to 13 years in prison for "fraudulent appropriation of property". In addition, the court decided to recover all the principal and illegal interest in this case.
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