Tricks of 'land service brokers' to defraud and appropriate billions

Hoang Mai town is a locality where people have a great need to do procedures related to land. Many people do not understand or have difficulty, are afraid to do the procedures, so they often ask or hire others to do it for them.

Through the work of grasping the situation and basic investigation, Hoang Mai Town Police discovered a number of subjects who often received money to do documents and procedures related to land for others, in which some subjects were found to have signs of taking advantage of this to defraud and appropriate people's property. In response to that situation, in early December 2021, the Unit established a special project to focus on fighting and clarifying.

The subject and evidence in the case. Photo: Thuy Anh

After a period of collecting evidence, the Task Force discovered that Le Hoang Vinh Thien (born in 1988), residing in Bac My block, Quynh Thien ward, Hoang Mai town, was the subject. While the Task Force was closely following all movements and activities related to Thien's regular receipt of money to make land documents for others, it received a report from Ms. NTH (born in 1966), residing in Ai Quoc block, Quynh Phuong ward, Hoang Mai town, accusing a fraudster of appropriating 640,000,000 VND. Through the description of the physical characteristics, it was discovered that the subject matched Thien, whom the Task Force was investigating.

Consolidating evidence, on December 20, 2021, Hoang Mai Town Police decided to crack the case and issue a verdict.Emergency detention orderfor Le Hoang Vinh Thien.

At the Investigation Police Agency of Hoang Mai Town Police, the subject initially confessed: Around January 2021, Thien received 140,000,000 VND from Ms. NTH to complete procedures to convert land use purpose from agricultural land to residential land in Quynh Phuong ward, Hoang Mai town.

In April 2021, this subject continued to receive VND 100,000,000 from Ms. NTH to complete procedures to convert land use purpose from agricultural land to residential land of another plot of land in Tan Phong block, Quynh Phuong ward, Hoang Mai town.

In both cases above, after receiving the money, Thien did not do anything to help Ms. H. complete the procedures to issue a land use right certificate.

Not stopping there, in July 2021, Le Hoang Vinh Thien tricked Ms. NTH into giving him 400,000,000 VND, saying it was to be used as a deposit to buy a plot of land in Quynh Loc commune, Hoang Mai town. However, after receiving Ms. H.'s money, Thien did not use the deposit to buy the land but used it for personal purposes.

In addition, the Investigation Police Agency also clarified that on December 21, 2020, Thien used a fake Land Use Rights Certificate with an address in Quynh Lien commune, Hoang Mai town (before that, Thien had sold the land with the real Certificate to someone else) to the pawn shop of Ms. D.TH residing in Bac My block, Quynh Thien ward, Hoang Mai town to mortgage a loan of 650,000,000 VND. In order to create trust with the lender, the subject wrote a land sale paper, because she trusted Thien, Ms. Hien agreed and gave Thien 650,000,000 VND.

During the investigation, the initial investigation police agency of Hoang Mai town determined that the total amount of money Le Hoang Vinh Thien appropriated was 1,290,000,000 VND.

With the collected documents and evidence, Hoang Mai Town Police are completing the file to prosecute the case, prosecute the accused and continue to investigate and expand the project.