Exposing the tricks of "land brokers" to turn other people's land into their own land
Mai Van Minh selected elderly customers who had little knowledge of land-related procedures and asked them to sign and put their fingerprints on blank paper, thereby appropriating many plots of land worth more than 17 billion VND.
Turn other people's land into our own land
Mai Van Minh (30 years old), residing in Nghi Phong commune, now Vinh city, works as areal estate broker. After that, Minh switched to land trading in the form of "surfing". In early 2023, due to investment losses and debt, Minh borrowed money from many people with a total debt of nearly 6 billion VND.
At this time, Minh accepted to do the procedures for dividing plots, donating land for road construction, and transferring land use rights, so he was keeping the land use right certificates of 3 people in Nghi Phong commune. Due to being pressured by the lender and needing money to pay debts, and taking advantage of the victims who were old and weak and lacked knowledge about land procedures, Mai Van Minh came up with the idea of defrauding and appropriating the land use rights of households that asked him to do land procedures.
On August 20, 2023, taking advantage of Mr. Hoang Van V. asking him to do the procedures for donating the road and dividing the land plot, Minh went to his house to commit fraudulent acts. Minh tricked Mr. V. and his wife into signing 4 blank sheets of paper, signing their full names, and rolling their fingerprints on the 3rd two sheets of the Contract for transferring the right to use the land plot with an area of 1,062m2.2To avoid Mr. V. and his wife's suspicion, Minh lied that this was a procedure for donating a road and dividing a plot of land.
At this time, Minh was in debt to Mr. Bui Duc H. for 600 million VND, so on August 25, 2023, the young man contacted Mr. H. and went to the notary office to sign, take fingerprints and notarize the contract to transfer the right to use the above land plot.
Although he did not meet the landowner at the notary office, because he believed Minh's words that he had bought the land, Mr. H. agreed to sign and put his fingerprint on the pre-printed transfer contract. After signing the land transfer contract and notarizing it, Minh continued to borrow 1.1 billion VND from Mr. H. The total amount that Mai Van Minh borrowed from Mr. H. was 1.7 billion VND.
After that, because Minh did not pay the debt of 1.7 billion, Mr. H. submitted documents to the One-Stop Department of the People's Committee of Nghi Loc District (Nghe An) to complete the procedures for transferring land use rights. Mr. H. was granted a "red book" for the above land plot by the competent authority.
The investigation agency determined that from August 2023 to January 2024, using the above tricks, Mai Van Minh transferred 3 plots of land of the three victims in Nghi Phong commune, with a total value of more than 17.7 billion VND. Of which, a plot of land measuring 1,062m2value over 4.1 billion VND; land plot area 1,849m2, worth more than 10 billion VND; and a plot of land 630m wide2value over 3.2 billion dong.
On June 3, 2024, after learning that their land had been transferred to someone else, the victims went to Nghe An Provincial Police to report Mai Van Minh's fraud. The next day, during the process of being summoned to work at the investigation agency, Minh surrendered, admitting his crime.
Confession of the scammer
At the trial, the defendant admitted to committing the crime as charged in the indictment. Minh stated that because of business losses and heavy debts, he committed fraud against the victims. The defendant also admitted that he took advantage of the people's lack of knowledge, the victims were elderly, did not understand the procedures related to land, and often subjectively did not read the content of the documents that the defendant brought. From there, the defendant easily tricked the victims into signing blank papers, then committed fraud.
Attending the court, the victims stated that because they trusted the defendant, who was from the same village, worked as a “land broker”, and understood land procedures, they did not suspect anything. When the defendant brought the documents to them for them to sign, because they trusted him, they did not read the content again. They completely trusted the defendant until they discovered that their land had been transferred to someone else.
One victim sadly explained that due to family circumstances, they asked Minh to do the paperwork to sell a piece of land to finance the construction of a house. However, Minh used deceitful tricks to defraud them. The defendant’s actions caused their family to fall into misery.
In the presence of the people attending the court, the panel of judges reminded everyone to be more careful in procedures related to land. Absolutely do not sign blank papers that do not clearly state the content as requested by others. Before signing or fingerprinting, you need to read the content clearly. Because just a little carelessness and subjectivity will cause bad people to commit fraudulent acts, causing damage to themselves.
Presenting the case in court, the representative of the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province stated that due to the need for money to pay debts and for personal expenses, Minh used many deceitful tricks to defraud the victims. The defendant's criminal behavior was reckless, daring, and disregarded the law, so it should be dealt with severely.
The panel of judges determined that the defendant’s criminal acts directly violated the property rights of citizens protected by law, affecting the local security and order situation, so it should be strictly punished. However, it is also necessary to consider some mitigating circumstances for the defendant, such as repentance and honest confession. After a comprehensive review of the case, the panel of judges sentenced defendant Mai Van Minh to 17 years in prison for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property.
Although the scammer had to pay for his crime, the case is a warning lesson for people in carrying out procedures related to land. When needing to carry out administrative procedures, especially procedures related to land certificates, people need to go to the office or state management agency to carry out the procedures, not through an intermediary to avoid "losing money and getting into trouble".