'Fake' Major General who swindled 100 billion VND is sentenced to life in prison

This afternoon (January 20), Hanoi People's Court sentenced defendant Hoa Huu Long (born 1964, former Director of Long Nhat Development Company Limited)life sentencefor the crime of Fraudulent Appropriation of Property.

Defendant Long's wife, Cao Thi Kim Loan (born in 1970, former Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Nhat My Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company) received a 20-year prison sentence. The jury ordered Hoa Huu Long and his wife to each pay 33 billion VND.

The defendants who were accomplices of defendant Long and his wife received sentences ranging from 30 months suspended imprisonment to 10 years in prison.

Previously, in April 2018, Hanoi Police received a petition from Mr. Dinh Anh T. (in Ha Dong district) accusing the couple Hoa Huu Long and Cao Thi Kim Loan of impersonating officers of General Department II (Ministry of National Defense) to defraud and appropriate money through the promise of "running a job" for Mr. T. to work at the Indochina Group.

According to Mr. T., Hoa Huu Long informed him that the Ministry of National Defense is planning to equitize some of its units and will establish the Indochina Group (code name S10), with Long as Commander.

The defendants in court.

To work in the Indochina Group, one must pay to attend training courses such as political elementary, staff officer... Mr. T. trusted and paid 110 million VND, only to later find out that he was scammed and that the Indochina Group (S10) did not exist.

Investigation results showed that Hoa Huu Long claimed to be Major General, Chairman of Indochina Group (S10), responsible for all activities related to S10, directly directing other accomplices to recruit personnel to work for S10, collecting fees from 65-110 million VND/personnel.

According to the indictment, as of November 29, 2017, Hoa Huu Long, his wife and accomplices had received the records of 951 employees, collecting more than 83.5 billion VND.

Hoa Huu Long knew that the Indochina Group (Organization S10) was not real, but he acted fraudulently, self-proclaimed himself Commander, Major General, head of the S10 organization, stood up to propagate, issued fake documents, introduced himself and the S10 organization to the personnel, promised to give them a rank and position in the army so that they would trust him to submit their documents and money.

Long directly or directed his wife and other defendants to collect money and documents from workers and then "disappeared".

Also appearing in court with defendant Hoa Huu Long and his wife for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property were 12 accomplices, including:

Nguyen Minh Son (born in 1971), Mac Phuc Hai (born in 1964), Phung Thi Thanh Hue (born in 1978), Tran Duy Hung (born in 1981), Le Hong Giang (born in 1976), Hoa Bach Tung (born in 1966), Pham The Hung (born in 1978), Le Chi Thanh (born in 1971), Nguyen Tan Mao (born in 1963), Ngo Tuan Anh (born in 1979), Vu Khac Thu (born in 1980), Hoang Van Khai (born in 1974).