Family ruined because of... 'precious son'

Using fake seals to raise capital

In mid-June 2020, the Nghe An Provincial Police Department received many reports from victims in Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces. Most of the reports had the same content of accusing a person who claimed to be a bank officer at the Vinh City branch of fraud and appropriation of property. Determining that this was a fraud case with extremely sophisticated and cunning methods and that it took a lot of time to collect documents and evidence, the investigators established a special investigation team to investigate the fraud case with the amount of money appropriated up to tens of billions of VND.

After nearly 3 months of verification and collection of evidence, at the end of August 2020, investigators temporarily detained Bui Huu Thang (born 1986), residing in Trung Do ward (Vinh city), this subject is believed to be the mastermind in the "virtual" capital calling cases.

Thang's first mission was in 2011, through relationships, Ms. PTX (49 years old), residing in Nghi Xuan district (Ha Tinh) met Bui Huu Thang. At that time, Thang introduced himself as an officer of a bank with a branch in Vinh city. Through conversation, Thang revealed that the bank where Thang worked was offering a preferential program for employees to deposit money with high interest rates (23.7%/year).

Thang said that if Ms. X's family had any savings, they should give it to Thang to "deposit in the bank to get high interest rates." Believing Thang's words, and thinking that Thang was a bank employee and knew relatives of the family, Ms. X withdrew 800 million VND in savings from another bank to give to Thang.

Not stopping there, in May 2013, Thang informed Ms. X. that the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam continued to have a capital mobilization program, if she had money, she should give it to Thang to help deposit it. Hearing that, Ms. X. continued to come to the house and gave Thang another 400 million VND to deposit in the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam like the previous time.

Because she was preparing to build a house, around September 2016, Ms. X. asked Thang to withdraw all the money for her. However, Thang gave many reasons such as: Withdrawing money at the bank was difficult, and asked Ms. X. to give her an additional amount of 253,700,000 VND to complete the withdrawal procedures. But after receiving this amount, Thang still did not withdraw the money for Ms. X. but continued to find ways to evade. At the same time, to gain Ms. X.'s trust, Thang provided many types of bank documents as well as wrote a confirmation letter, promising to return the money to Ms. X. At this time, the total amount of money that Thang received from Ms. X. was more than 1.4 billion VND. Unable to get the money back, Ms. X. was forced to file a petition to the police force for help.

At the same time, a woman named H. (residing in Nghi Xuan district, Ha Tinh) was also defrauded by Thang and had her property appropriated. Using a similar scam, Thang told Ms. H. that the bank he worked for was offering a high-interest deposit program for employees. Trusting Thang, Ms. H. sent Thang 1.5 billion VND to enjoy the high interest rate.

Nghe An Province Police Investigation Agency determined that since 2011, Thang had impersonated an employee of a bank branch in Vinh City and spread the news that the bank was having a capital mobilization program for employees only with high interest rates. With a handsome, scholarly appearance and a talent for speaking, Thang tricked many people in Ha Tinh and Nghe An into depositing money. However, Thang spent all of that money on personal expenses.

To gain the trust of the victims, Bui Huu Thang also falsified documents and procedures related to the receipt of money, the form of capital contribution with red seals as well as the decisions of the branch directors of banks in the area... to deliver to them. At the investigation agency, Thang confessed that in addition to the two victims mentioned above, Bui Huu Thang also defrauded 6 other victims with a total amount of tens of billions of VND.

Old parents sell house to pay debt, no place to stay

At the end of March 2021, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first instance trial of defendant Bui Huu Thang for the crime of "fraudulent appropriation of property". From early morning, Mr. Bui VS and his wife (the defendant's parents) were present at the court hoping to see their son soon, not forgetting to bring some things for their son to use in prison.

It is known that Bui Huu Thang is the only son of the family. Although the family is not rich, Mr. S. and his wife always create the best conditions for Thang to study properly and graduate from university with a major in Information Technology.

After receiving his Bachelor's degree, Thang began applying for jobs in many places. According to Thang, during the job application process, through friends, Thang met a man named Nguyen Khac Tung, who claimed to be an employee of Vietcombank Vietnam, headquartered in Hanoi. Through discussion and agreement, Thang gave Tung 300 million VND to apply for a job as an employee of this bank. After that, Tung gave Thang a document deciding that Thang would become an official employee of Vietcombank Nghe An branch. However, not long after that, Thang discovered that the decision was fake, but when he heard Tung say that the 300 million VND Thang had given him earlier would be transferred to a savings account with a high interest rate, Thang did not have any further comments.

Unable to get a job, Thang came up with the idea of ​​​​fraud. Thang lied to his parents that he had become an official employee of the bank. When his son handed him the decision paper, Mr. S. and his wife thought it was real and were extremely happy and excited when their son became a bank officer. From then on, Thang took his motorbike to "work" every day, dressed like a bank employee, so everyone believed that Thang was a real bank officer.

The "prey" that Thang targets are people with economic conditions, without exception, even brothers and relatives become Thang's victims.

When approaching the “prey”, Thang introduced himself as an employee of Vietcombank Nghe An branch and gave information that this bank was having a capital mobilization program exclusively for employees of the bank to deposit savings with high interest rates, depending on the amount of deposit, the interest rate could be more than 20%/year. Thang also “bragged” that he could get a job in a State agency.

For victims who urgently needed to withdraw money, Thang required them to pay many fees to complete the procedures before they could withdraw, and at the same time, Thang wrote a guarantee that he would return the money to them. Therefore, the victims continued to give Thang more money to get the money they had sent back.

With extremely sophisticated fraudulent tricks, within 7 years from 2011 to 2018, Thang defrauded and appropriated the property of 9 victims with the amount of nearly 11 billion VND.

At the trial, Thang admitted the whole incident, but Thang said that he did not use the money he embezzled for himself but transferred it to Nguyen Khac Tung to deposit in high-interest savings. Thang said that all information about the capital mobilization program was instructed by Tung to do. The money mobilized from customers was paid directly to Tung by Thang, so there were no invoices or documents. When the victims asked for the money back, Thang went to Tung to ask for a solution for the customers, but was given the reason that the deadline had not come yet so it could not be withdrawn.

However, during the investigation, the Nghe An Provincial Police Department verified the man named Nguyen Khac Tung. The verification results from the bank showed that up to now, this unit has never had an employee named Nguyen Khac Tung. The bank also did not have a savings mobilization program as Bui Huu Thang told the victims.

The jury found that the defendant’s fraud was serious and needed to be dealt with severely. However, in this case, the victims were also partly at fault for making the transactions without going to the bank.

During the interrogation, Mr. S. and his wife could only bow their heads, occasionally wiping away tears. For 7 years, the couple still thought their son was a bank employee until the police came to their house… Because Thang still went to work and returned home during regular business hours every day, the family did not know what happened.

It is known that there were times when Thang was away from home, Mr. S. wrote a receipt for the victims' money and gave it to his son, an amount of about 800 million VND. Although he did not benefit from this money, when the police got involved, Mr. S tried to return this money to the victims. To get this large sum of money, he and his wife had to sell their house, which was all their property.

After selling their house to pay off part of their son's debt, Mr. S. and his wife had to rent a small room to live in. Old and in poor health, Mr. S.'s wife was suffering from a serious illness. When she heard that her son had committed a crime, her illness became worse. Before Thang appeared in court, Thang's mother had to go to the emergency room. Wanting to help her son, but with no other assets left, Mr. S. even mortgaged his wife's pension book to get money to treat his wife's illness.

In court, Bui Huu Thang bowed his head and apologized to his parents, relatives and the victims. But the apology seemed too late…

Considering the entire case, the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the Trial Panel sentenced Bui Huu Thang to life in prison for "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and 4 years in prison for "Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations; use of fake documents of agencies and organizations". In total, Bui Huu Thang must serve a life sentence, and Bui Huu Thang must compensate the victims for the amount of money he has appropriated.

An Quynh