Teacher cheats to get jobs, get tenure and embezzle billions

On April 18, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Nguyen Van Chung (born 1982), residing in Hung Phuc commune, Hung Nguyen district, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

Nguyen Van Chung is a primary school teacher at a school in Hung Phuc commune, Hung Nguyen district. Although he was unable to find a job or transfer to another school, due to debt, Chung approached, created trust, promised to transfer to another work unit and to get a permanent position in order to appropriate money from many people.

From June 2019 to March 2021, Chung received and appropriated money from 14 people with a total amount of more than 2.6 billion VND.

Among the victims, the one who was scammed the most money was Ms. Vi Thi Th. (residing in Ta Ca commune, Ky Son district). In June 2019, Chung contacted Ms. Th. to discuss whether if any of her relatives needed to apply for a teaching position at schools in Nghe An, Chung would "help" them.

Defendant Nguyen Van Chung. Photo: Tran Vu

Hearing that, Ms. Th. asked for her two children to teach at a high school in Ky Son district. Chung offered 500 million VND and promised to "get" the job.

After that, Ms. Th. transferred 500 million VND to Chung many times. However, when checking the admission results of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, she did not see the names of her two children. When Ms. Th. asked, Chung said there would be an additional list.

Suspicious, Ms. Th. checked and discovered that she had been scammed, so she asked Chung to return the money. After returning 50 million VND to Ms. Th., Chung fled. On December 30, 2021, Nguyen Van Chung was arrested according to the Wanted Decision.

At the trial, the defendant confessed to all his crimes. Defendant Chung said that because of debt, he swindled money from the victims and then spent it all on personal expenses.

The victims came to court to ask the defendant to return their money.

The panel of judges determined that in this case, the defendant had aggravating circumstances due to committing the crime two or more times. However, it is also necessary to consider some mitigating circumstances for the defendant such as honest confession, remorse, and being awarded a certificate of excellent teacher at the district level during his work.

After a comprehensive review of the case, the court sentenced Nguyen Van Chung to 18 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property. In terms of civil matters, the court ordered the defendant to return the money to the victims./.