Young woman in Nghe An 'tricks' to defraud real estate man
Due to business losses and debt, Ha Thi Tam came up with the idea of fraud. By inviting people to pool their capital to invest in real estate, Tam swindled a man in Hanoi out of 1 billion VND.
On September 27, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a trial for defendant Ha Thi Tam (born in 1980), residing in Nghi Thu ward, Cua Lo town, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". The victim in the case is Mr. Nguyen Van Th. (born in 1986, residing in Cau Giay district, Hanoi).
According to the indictment, on September 17, 2022, Tam and another person bought a plot of land in Nghi Thu ward for more than 4.7 billion VND, each party contributing half. Due to lack of money, Tam borrowed the entire amount of money from Ms. Phung Thi Thai.
Then, Tam was assigned to prepare the documents and sell this plot of land. Because the loan repayment deadline had come and the real estate market was down, Tam could not sell the plot of land, so he had to transfer the plot of land to Ms. Thai.
After completing the transfer contract and notarizing it, but not yet recording the name of the buyer (usually called a pending contract), Ms. Thai asked Tam to find someone to sell it on her behalf to recover the capital. Therefore, Tam posted an advertisement to sell this plot of land.
Because he had known Mr. Nguyen Van Th. before, in early November 2022, Tam discussed with him about contributing capital to trade land, but Mr. Th. did not agree. Tam knew that the land had been resold to pay off debt but continued to text Mr. Th. to invite him to contribute money to invest.
In early December 2022, Mr. Th. returned from Hanoi to see the land, but after hearing Tam's quote of 5.5 billion VND, he did not agree to invest.
On the morning of January 3, 2023, after unsuccessfully asking Mr. Th. to buy land, Tam changed direction and asked to borrow 500 million VND, promising to pay it all back after 7 days. Trusting him, Mr. Th. transferred 500 million VND to Tam.
The next day, Tam texted Mr. Th. with the content "there is a customer who wants to buy this land at a higher price, we buy it to make a quick profit of about 200 to 300 million VND". Then, Tam sent a picture via Zalo to Mr. Th. with the content "the land seller told me to pay the remaining amount".
To gain the victim's trust, Tam created a contract to deposit money to buy the land and asked Mr. Th. to contribute 1 billion VND. Because he trusted him and had previously sent Tam 500 million VND, Mr. Th. sent nearly 500 million VND more to invest in buying that land. Tam used all of the above money to pay off his debt.
Then, under the authorization of Ms. Thai, Tam sold the above land plot to another person and was granted a red book by the authorities.
As for Mr. Th., after transferring money to buy land for Tam, he repeatedly requested to provide legal documents about the jointly purchased land plot, but Tam was unable to provide them.
By early August 2023, Mr. Th. verified that he had been scammed and asked for his money back, but Tam was unable to pay. Therefore, this person filed a complaint against Tam to the police.
At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crime. The defendant stated that due to the pressure of debt, he defrauded Mr. Th. The defendant has paid back all the money he defrauded.
Considering the defendant's behavior as a violation of the law, the People's Court sentenced Ha Thi Tam to 7 years in prison for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property.
