The "beauty queen" admits to swindling money from a wealthy businessman.
Following a series of online scams that defrauded a wealthy individual of over 9 billion VND, Dao Thi Mong Thuong was sentenced to life imprisonment. At the appeal hearing, the defendant admitted to the fraud and requested a reduced sentence.
On September 24th, at the Nghe An Provincial People's Court, the Hanoi High People's Court opened a retrial hearing for defendant Dao Thi Mong Thuong (46 years old, residing in Lai Vung district, Dong Thap province) on the charge of...Fraudulent appropriation of property.
According to the case file, in 2019, Thuong created a Facebook account under the name Dao Ngoc Minh, introducing herself as a Vietnamese expatriate from Canada to approach and get acquainted with Mr. NVH (from Nghe An province). At that time, Mr. H. was separated from his wife, so when the beautiful and wealthy woman messaged him, appearing to be a good listener and understanding person, he agreed to be friends.
Ngoc Minh introduced herself as having a father who is a Vietnamese-Canadian and a mother of Hong Kong origin, whose family owns a large transportation company in Canada. She typically holds 15% of the company's shares, enjoys the family's trust, and uses their bank account for business transactions.
During the course of the scam, Thuong meticulously crafted scenarios to make Mr. H. believe that Ngoc Minh was real. After a long period of chatting online, Mr. H. developed feelings for "Ngoc Minh".
Between September 19, 2019, and April 27, 2022, by creating various scenarios such as needing money for business, paperwork, gifts, inheritance procedures, land investment, etc., Mong Thuong, in the role of Ngoc Minh, received a total of over 12.2 billion VND from Mr. H.
The defendant Thuong also "generously" spent over 400 million VND to buy gifts and transferred over 2.5 billion VND to Mr. H. when he needed it for business investment.
During their acquaintance, Mr. H. repeatedly suggested meeting "Ngoc Minh," but she always evaded him with various excuses. When they contacted each other via social media, "Ngoc Minh" wouldn't allow the other party to see her image clearly.
By April 2022, Mr. H. discovered he had been scammed and repeatedly contacted Thuong, demanding the money back, but to no avail. Therefore, Mr. H. filed a complaint against Thuong with the police.
At the first-instance trial, the defendant Thuong did not admit to the fraud, claiming that he and the victim had a romantic relationship, and that the money Mr. H. transferred to him was "relationship fees." The defendant requested a confrontation with Mr. H. to clarify this matter, but the victim refused, requesting a trial in absentia.
Although the defendant did not admit to the crime, based on the results of the investigation, questioning, and public debate at the trial, the panel of judges determined that the prosecution of the defendant was correct and that the charges were against the right person. The court sentenced Dao Thi Mong Thuong to life imprisonment.
Subsequently, the defendant appealed for a reduced sentence. At the appellate hearing on August 21st, the defendant Thuong stated that he had realized his actions were wrong and asked the court to consider mitigating circumstances.
It was stated that, during the investigation, the defendant had "over a dozen times" tried to get his brother to return 4 billion VND to the victim, but at the first-instance trial, due to panic, he forgot to mention this.
However, this argument failed to convince the panel of judges, as the defendant did not admit to the crime at the first-instance trial. The defendant's brother's proactive return of the money was due to his understanding of its origin.
Subsequently, the defendant requested a temporary adjournment of the trial to allow his family to compensate the victim. At the defendant's request, the panel of judges decided to postpone the trial to allow the defendant to arrange for his family to compensate the victim.
However, at the trial on September 24th, the defendant stated that he had not yet paid any additional compensation to the victim. The defendant claimed to have tried to influence his relatives, but currently no one is able to do so.
Since the defendant did not present any new circumstances compared to the first-instance court's findings to be considered for a reduction in sentence, the appellate panel advised the defendant to consider withdrawing the appeal. During the execution of the sentence, the defendant's efforts to gradually compensate the victim through family members are grounds for considering a sentence reduction.
After some thought, the defendant decided to withdraw his appeal, accepting the life sentence handed down by the lower court.