Woman uses fake gold as collateral to borrow over 2 billion VND.
After renting the room for a while, Le Thi Nu bought counterfeit gold and asked the landlord to keep it for her. She then used the counterfeit gold as collateral to fraudulently borrow nearly 2.1 billion VND from the landlord couple.
On May 20th, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first-instance trial of defendant Le Thi Nu (born in 1976, from Ha Tinh province), residing in Viet Yen town, Bac Giang province, on the charge of...Fraudulent appropriation of property.
According to the case file, in August 2019, Le Thi Nu rented a room at the house of Ms. Ho Thi C. (born in 1953, residing in Hung Binh ward, Vinh City). During her stay, Nu frequently visited and showed concern for Ms. C.
On August 19, 2020, Nu told Mrs. C., "I want to leave some gold with you because my rented room doesn't have a place to store it, and I'm afraid it will get lost." Mrs. C. refused, saying, "You're sending fake gold but claiming it's real? How can you say that?"
Two days later, when Mrs. C. went to the market, leaving only her hard-of-hearing husband at home, Nu took the gold, wrapped in paper, and asked him to keep it for her.
When the wife returned from the market, the husband recounted the incident, but Mrs. C. continued to question the authenticity of the gold. At that point, Nu told Mrs. C. and her husband, "It's not fake gold at all." After that, Mrs. C. and her husband said nothing and kept the gold for Nu.
About a month later, Le Thi Nu approached Mrs. C. and her husband, asking to borrow 300 million VND to invest in land trading. Nu promised to pay an interest rate of 13% per month and used the gold they had previously deposited as collateral. Trusting her, Mrs. C. withdrew 300 million VND from the bank and lent it to Nu.
Later, Nu continued to borrow money from Mrs. C. and her husband many times. Each time she borrowed, Nu went to the market to buy fake gold, packaged and sealed it, and then brought it to them as collateral. Sometimes, to avoid suspicion, Nu lied to Mrs. C., saying that the gold belonged to someone else and that they had asked her to pawn it for a loan.
After lending Nữ money 19 times without receiving any repayment, Mrs. C. and her husband requested that the gold they had mortgaged be taken to a gold shop to determine if it was real or fake. At this point, Nữ admitted that the gold was fake, purchased at Vinh Market and Ga Market.
The investigating agency determined that, using the above method, from October 7, 2020 to March 19, 2023, Le Thi Nu defrauded the couple and C. of nearly 2.1 billion VND.
At the trial, the defendant admitted to the fraudulent acts as charged in the indictment. The defendant confessed to buying fake gold to fraudulently use as collateral to borrow money from the victim's couple.
The defendant did not invest the money in land speculation but instead spent it all on personal expenses and gambling. Currently, the defendant is unable to repay the debt to the victim.
Considering the defendant's actions were illegal and dangerous to society, the court sentenced Le Thi Nu to 16 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property. Regarding civil matters, the court ordered the defendant to fully compensate the victim.