From creditor to accomplice in fraud
Knowing each other from real estate investments, Truong Minh Nam agreed to mortgage his two "red books" so Dinh Hoai Nam could borrow money. When Minh Nam needed money for work, Hoai Nam ordered a fake "red book" in his friend's name. Minh Nam knew the "red book" was fake but agreed to mortgage it with Hoai Nam to borrow money.
From creditor to defendant
Dinh Hoai Nam (22 years old), residing in Nghia Hung commune, Nghia Dan district, and Truong Minh Nam (30 years old), residing in Nghia Mai commune, Nghia Dan district (Nghe An) met each other during the process of buying and selling land. In September 2023, Hoai Nam borrowed money from Minh Nam to invest in land and promised to have a large profit. Although he did not have money available, Minh Nam agreed to let Hoai Nam use his 2 plots of land as collateral for a loan of 140 million VND.
In early 2024, because he needed money to go abroad, Minh Nam asked his friend to return a red book to him to sell for money to take care of work. Being urged to pay the debt, Hoai Nam came up with the idea of ordering a fake "red book" online under the name of his friend Truong Minh Nam for 4 million VND.
After completing the paperwork, Hoai Nam contacted Le AT (born in 1987, residing in Thai Hoa town) to mortgage the Land Use Rights Certificate to borrow 300 million VND. This subject gave false information that this land plot was bought for his friend Truong Minh Nam and now the price has increased.
When Mr. T. requested to take a video of the land plot and take a photo of the Land Use Rights Certificate, Hoai Nam took a photo of the fake "red book" and another land plot to send to Mr. T. After watching the video and the photo of the land cover, Mr. T. agreed to lend money on the condition that the land plot owner came to the notary office to make a transfer contract for him.
Dinh Hoai Nam contacted Truong Minh Nam with false information that "the lender wants us to take the cover and pay them back". At this time, Minh Nam seemed worried so he asked Hoai Nam how he was doing. Hoai Nam said "the company gave me a land cover to sign to get the money to redeem your cover, you just need to go home and sign to get the money".
Truong Minh Nam knew it was a fake "red book" so he was hesitant but Hoai Nam kept reassuring him "don't worry". Hoai Nam read the information on the fake Land Use Rights Certificate to Minh Nam such as: area, plot number, location of two frontages. At the same time, he told Minh Nam to memorize that information so that when someone asked him, he could answer correctly.
On April 21, 2024, both of them went to a notary office in Thai Hoa town to complete the procedures for notarizing the transfer of land use rights to Mr. T. At this time, Mr. T. was not present there. When Minh Nam completed the procedures for signing and pointing to the land transfer documents, Hoai Nam recorded a video and sent it to Mr. T.
Trusting him, Mr. T. agreed and transferred 300 million VND to Dinh Hoai Nam's account. That evening, when Truong Minh Nam called to confirm, Hoai Nam said that Mr. T. had sent the money and promised to get the "red book" back in a few days. But in fact, Hoai Nam had used all that money to invest in virtual currency.
After spending all his money on online games, Hoai Nam came up with a scenario where Mr. T. refused to lend him any more money. When Truong Minh Nam asked to get the documents and red book he had signed the day before, Hoai Nam went online to buy another fake red book under Truong Minh Nam’s name.
This time, through an acquaintance, Hoai Nam contacted a woman in Quynh Luu district to mortgage the land title to borrow 100 million VND. When the other party agreed to lend him money, Hoai Nam showed the fake land title to Truong Minh Nam and told him to go to the notary office the next day to complete the paperwork.
On the appointed day, both of them went to the notary office to complete the paperwork. While processing the documents, the notary office discovered that the land title had signs of being forged, so they reported it to the police. With no other choice, Dinh Hoai Nam and Truong Minh Nam turned themselves in to the police.
Scam to burn into virtual money
In addition to committing fraud with Truong Minh Nam, Dinh Hoai Nam also committed many other scams by using fake documents as collateral to borrow money.
Although he did not own any land, Dinh Hoai Nam forged a Land Use Rights Certificate in his name to mortgage with Mr. Tran XD (born in 1973) to borrow 150 million VND. The lender, being subjective, only saw that the information on the citizen identification card and the Land Use Rights Certificate matched, so he lent Nam the money.
The investigation agency determined that from December 22, 2023 to January 26, 2024, Dinh Hoai Nam ordered 4 Land Use Rights Certificates for 16 million VND. After that, Nam used fake land titles to mortgage and defraud to borrow money. The total amount of money Dinh Hoai Nam defrauded and appropriated from the victims was 850 million VND. Of which, Truong Minh Nam, his accomplice, defrauded and appropriated 300 million VND.
For the above crimes, Dinh Hoai Nam and Truong Minh Nam were prosecuted and brought to trial for two crimes of Fraudulent appropriation of property and Using fake documents of agencies and organizations.
At the trial, the two defendants admitted their crimes. Dinh Hoai Nam said that due to business losses, along with losing money playing virtual currency online, he had the idea of fraud. After a successful scam, the defendant continued to commit fraud and defraud many other people.
Although Truong Minh Nam knew that Dinh Hoai Nam was losing money in business, he still agreed to use a fake land title in his name and sign a transfer contract to commit fraud. At the trial, the defendant expressed remorse for his assistance in helping Hoai Nam commit fraud and appropriate money from the victims.
Although he had not yet benefited, after Truong Minh Nam was arrested, the defendant had influenced the victim's family to compensate him with 200 million VND. Therefore, at the trial, the victim asked for a reduced sentence for the defendant. With many mitigating circumstances, the defendant Truong Minh Nam was sentenced to 10 years in prison (7 years for the crime ofFraudulent appropriation of propertyand 3 years in prison for the crime of using fake documents of agencies and organizations).
Meanwhile, defendant Dinh Hoai Nam was sentenced to 16 years and 6 months in prison; including 13 years and 6 months in prison for fraud and 3 years in prison for using fake documents of agencies and organizations.
Song Nam - a pair of friends from the same hometown, with the same aspirations, who cooperated in illegal business activities, had to "take each other" to jail for fraudulent acts, causing damage to many people.