Repentance of the 'lady' with a sympathetic appearance

During the trial that opened at the end of June at the Ha Tinh People's Court, Ms. Mai Thuy Linh (52 years old, residing in Ho Chi Minh City) repeatedly admitted that her greed for money had pushed many businesses into debt and difficulties. "The defendant saw that it was too easy to cheat money, so she kept doing it. By the time she realized it, it was too late, she could not stop," Ms. Linh said.

The verdict determined that from 2015 to 2017, despite not having the resources to build schools and hospitals, Ms. Linh established a construction company based in Ho Chi Minh City, signed construction contracts with 6 business directors in Ha Tinh, and asked them to transfer 7.5 billion VND to apply for project funding. After receiving the money, Ms. Linh spent it for personal use and failed to fulfill her commitment. When the matter fell apart, she was only able to return a few hundred million VND to her partners.

In court, Ms. Linh, dressed in faded clothes, bowed her head and mumbled that she had never intended to commit fraud until she received VND1.2 billion in funding from a business in Ho Chi Minh City to build a kindergarten in Nghi Xuan district (Ha Tinh) in 2015. "Seeing me dressed elegantly and with prestige, many business directors contacted me to ask for funding and construction contracts. They gave me valuable meeting gifts that dazzled me," the defendant said.

Ms. Linh said she rarely held such large assets, and when many directors gave her money, her greed arose. The "businesswoman" did not bring the money back to her family but used it for personal expenses and to do charity work in other provinces to gain the trust of the government. Many times when she was accused, she used the money she had swindled from one company to pay back another company to keep things quiet.

Many victims, when answering the court, also admitted that the case happened because they were "too gullible". They did not think that Ms. Linh, with her gentle and simple appearance, could impersonate an "international philanthropist", creating such a blatant fraud scenario.

When hearing Ms. Linh boast that she could get funding for the project, many business directors spread the news and told others. And so, they connected with each other and came to Ms. Linh to ask for help.

"Once, when we discussed something, she called some organizations and said she would sponsor 300-500 million VND for charity. Such a large amount of money and such a sudden decision, I initially did not trust her but was moved, voluntarily paying her a billion VND as a deposit," a victim explained.

In response to the fact that many business directors continuously blamed Ms. Linh, the court said: "When you give a large amount of money, you should look at the face and figure it out, find out clearly about the origin of Ms. Linh's company before investing." One person replied that because of trust and eagerness to get the project, they "took the risk", because doing business is difficult these days, if you are careless, another unit will bid for it.

When Ms. Linh said she had no money to pay back, many victims were upset but also determined that they could not get their money back. "We also suffered a lot of criticism when we were cheated, our business faced difficulties and debts, we hope the court will judge the right person and the right crime," one person said.

Recognizing that the victims were also partly at fault for believing the scam, the court sentenced Ms. Linh to 16 years in prison for the crime.Fraudulent appropriation of property, forced to compensate 6 victims more than 12 billion VND (including bank interest).

Before being escorted to the van to serve her sentence, in a few short minutes meeting with her relatives, Ms. Linh shared that today's tragedy was due to being controlled by the huge flow of money, unable to resist its attraction. The defendant hopes that many people will learn from this lesson so that her family will not fall into suffering and scandal.