Tổ chức cho người khác trốn đi nước ngoài, cựu sinh viên lĩnh án tù

On July 16, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendants Truong Van Bac (born in 1992), Truong Van Thoai (born in 1993), both residing in Luong Ngoai commune, Ba Thuoc district (Thanh Hoa) and Luu Van Duc (born in 1991), residing in Hung Yen Nam commune, Hung Nguyen district (Nghe An) for the crime of organizing others to flee abroad.

According to the case file, although not licensed by competent state agencies in the field of labor export, for the purpose of profit, from December 2017 to May 2018, these subjects organized for many people to illegally go to Korea to work twice under the form of tourist visas.

Defendants at the first instance trial. Photo: Tran Vu

Because he used to work for Su Ha Company - Thailand, specializing in consulting and doing procedures for tourists traveling abroad, Bac knew Nguyen Van Truong (from Quang Binh province), who is currently working in Korea.

The school said it can accept Vietnamese tourists in Korea who want to stay in the country to work with salaries ranging from 1,200 USD to 1,500 USD/month. The school pays each worker 1,000 USD.

Then, Bac told Thoai (his nephew called Bac "uncle") that he could make business and tourist visas for people who wanted to work in Korea and asked Thoai to find people.

Around January 2017, through Thoại, Bắc met Lưu Văn Dực. Dực said that in Nghệ An there were many people who wanted to go to Korea to work, so he asked for help. Bắc confirmed that he could send people to Korea to work and said the cost was 12,000 USD (equivalent to 275 million VND).

Around July 2017, Duc took his nephew, Luu Van Th., to meet Bac to ask about going abroad. Bac said he would process Th.'s travel to South Korea on a tourist visa so that Th. could stay in the country to work, and asked him to prepare documents and a deposit.

On November 22, 2017, Thoại and Dực took Th.'s father to Hanoi to meet Bắc to discuss the matter and deposit 50 million VND. After that, Bắc transferred the documents and deposit to a company in Thailand to process the tourist visa for Th. from Thailand to Korea. About 1 month later, upon receiving notice from Bắc that the visa was available, Th. transferred 210 million VND to Bắc's account through Dực.

On December 22, 2017, Th. went to Noi Bai airport to leave for Thailand. During Th.'s stay in Thailand, Su Ha Company discovered that Th.'s purpose of going to Korea was to stay and work illegally, so they canceled his visa. After his stay in Thailand expired, Th. returned to Vietnam.

At this time, fearing that if Mr. Th. returned to Nghe An, they would lose their reputation in recruiting workers, Bac, Thoai, and Duc discussed with Mr. Th. to stay in Hanoi to find a job and not return to his hometown. Listening to the arrangement of the above subjects, Th. stayed in the capital to work, waiting for the opportunity to go to Korea, but until now he has not been able to leave the country.

After that, knowing that Nguyen Ba Ng., Tran Ngoc C., and Nguyen Tam H. wanted to go to Korea for work, Duc and Thoai agreed to take them. At that time, Bac advised the customers that the cost for each person to go was 350 million VND. When the two sides agreed, on May 14, 2018, Bac, Duc, and Thoai organized for the victims from Vietnam to escape to Korea with tourist visas, but when they arrived in China, these two people were unable to leave the country and had to return to Vietnam.

The investigation agency determined that the actions of Truong Van Bac, Luu Van Duc, and Truong Van Thoai were illegal. The total amount of money that the defendants confiscated from the victims was 760 million VND. In this case, Bac played the role of mastermind and leader. Duc and Thoai played the role of accomplices to Bac.

It is known that Thoai and Duc are former students of Vinh University.

At the trial, the defendants admitted to the crimes as stated in the indictment, expressed remorse, and asked for a reduced sentence.

Considering the case as a whole, the panel sentenced Truong Van Bac to 5 years in prison, Luu Van Duc to 3 years in prison, and Truong Van Thoai to 2 years in prison for the crime of organizing others to flee abroad. Regarding the civil part, the defendants were required to return the money they had appropriated from the victims (minus the amount of compensation).