Hiring someone to forge land ownership certificates to fraudulently obtain loans.
Phan Thị Thu Hoài used social media to order forged land ownership certificates ("red books") and vehicle registration certificates. She then used these forged documents to borrow money, defrauding victims of over 3.6 billion VND.
On February 20th, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance trial to hear the case against defendant Phan Thi Thu Hoai (born in 1976), residing in Thanh Chuong town, Thanh Chuong district, for the crimes of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Using forged documents of an organization".
According to the indictment, Phan Thị Thu Hoài knew Mr. Trần Xuân V. (residing in Thanh Chương town) and was aware that he ran a pawnshop and credit business.
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Around the end of March 2022, due to debt and the need for personal expenses, Hoai conceived the idea of having four fake documents made to use as collateral for Mr. V. in order to defraud him of money.
To carry out her plan, Hoai went online and ordered four fake land ownership certificates and fake car registration certificates at a total cost of nearly 40 million VND.
After having four fake documents made and waiting to receive them, Hoai used the genuine documents belonging to other people twice, taking advantage of Mr. V.'s trust to borrow money.
Hoai's intention was to wait until she received the forged documents, then use them as collateral to retrieve the real documents and embezzle money from Mr. V.
Furthermore, after receiving the forged documents, Hoai used them twice to defraud and embezzle money from Mr. V. The investigating agency determined that the total amount of money Hoai defrauded from Mr. V. in four separate instances was over 3.6 billion VND.
At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crime. The defendant stated that due to debt, he devised a scheme to have forged documents made in order to defraud the victims.
The female defendant repeatedly wept and bowed her head, apologizing to the victim. She pleaded with the court to consider mitigating circumstances so she could return to her children and parents sooner.
Attending the trial, the victim demanded that the defendant return the money and requested that the defendant be tried according to the law.
After a comprehensive review of the case, the panel of judges sentenced the defendant Phan Thi Thu Hoai to 14 years for the crime of Fraudulent Appropriation of Property and 3 years for the crime of Using Forged Documents of an Organization. The combined sentence requires the defendant to serve a total of 17 years in prison.
Regarding the civil aspect, the court ordered the defendant to compensate the victim with over 3.6 billion VND (minus the 30 million VND already paid).
