From creditor to accomplice in fraud.
Having known each other through real estate investments, Truong Minh Nam agreed to mortgage his two land ownership certificates ("red books") to Dinh Hoai Nam to borrow money. When Minh Nam needed money for business, Hoai Nam ordered fake land ownership certificates in his friend's name. Minh Nam knew the certificates were fake but reluctantly went along with Hoai Nam to mortgage them to borrow money.
From creditor to defendant
Dinh Hoai Nam (22 years old), residing in Nghia Hung commune, Nghia Dan district, and Truong Minh Nam (30 years old), residing in Nghia Mai commune, Nghia Dan district (Nghe An province), knew each other through land transactions. In September 2023, Hoai Nam borrowed money from Minh Nam to invest in land, promising a substantial profit. Although Minh Nam did not have the money readily available, he agreed to let Hoai Nam use two of his plots of land as collateral to borrow 140 million VND.
In early 2024, needing money to travel abroad, Minh Nam asked his friend to return a land ownership certificate so he could sell it to fund his business. Pressed for repayment, Hoai Nam conceived the idea of ordering a fake land ownership certificate online under his friend Truong Minh Nam's name for 4 million VND.
After completing the paperwork, Hoai Nam contacted Le AT (born in 1987, residing in Thai Hoa town) with the intention of mortgaging the land use right certificate to borrow 300 million VND. This individual provided false information, claiming that the land plot was purchased for his friend Truong Minh Nam and had already increased in value.
When Mr. T. requested a video of the land plot and a photo of the land use right certificate, Hoai Nam took a photo of a fake "land title certificate" and filmed a different land plot to send to Mr. T. After watching the video and the photos of the land title, Mr. T. agreed to lend him money on the condition that the owner of the land plot come to the notary office to draw up a transfer contract.
Dinh Hoai Nam contacted Truong Minh Nam and gave false information, saying, "The lender wants us to retrieve the land title so we can pay them back." At this point, Minh Nam became worried and asked Hoai Nam what to do. Hoai Nam said, "The company gave me a land title to sign for in exchange for the money to redeem your title. You just need to go back and sign to get the money."
Knowing it was a fake land ownership certificate, Truong Minh Nam hesitated, but Hoai Nam repeatedly reassured him, "Don't worry." Hoai Nam read the information on the fake certificate to Minh Nam, such as the area, plot number, and the location with two street frontages. He also instructed Minh Nam to memorize this information so he could answer correctly if asked.
On April 21, 2024, both of them went to a notary office in Thai Hoa town to notarize the transfer of land use rights to Mr. T. At that time, Mr. T. was not present. While Minh Nam was signing and fingerprinting the land transfer documents, Hoai Nam recorded a video and sent it to Mr. T.
Trusting him, Mr. T. agreed and transferred 300 million VND to Dinh Hoai Nam's account. That evening, when Truong Minh Nam called to confirm, Hoai Nam said that Mr. T. had sent the money and promised to get the land title deed back in a few days. But in reality, Hoai Nam had used all of that money to invest in cryptocurrency.
After squandering all his money on online games, Hoai Nam came up with a plan: that Mr. T. would no longer agree to lend him money. When Truong Minh Nam asked for the documents and land title deed that had been signed the previous day, Hoai Nam went online and ordered another fake land title deed in Truong Minh Nam's name.
This time, through an acquaintance's introduction, Hoai Nam contacted a woman in Quynh Luu district to mortgage a land title to borrow 100 million dong. When the other party agreed to lend the money, Hoai Nam showed the fake land title to Truong Minh Nam and told him to go to the notary office the next day to complete the procedures.
On the scheduled date, both went to the notary office to complete the procedures. During the processing of the documents, the notary office discovered that the land title showed signs of forgery and reported it to the police. With no other option, Dinh Hoai Nam and Truong Minh Nam turned themselves in to the police.
Scams to get rich on cryptocurrency.
In addition to colluding with Truong Minh Nam in committing fraud, Dinh Hoai Nam also single-handedly committed numerous other scams by using forged land titles as collateral for loans.
Although he did not own any land, Dinh Hoai Nam forged a land use right certificate in his name to mortgage with Mr. Tran XD (born in 1973) in order to borrow 150 million VND. The lender, being careless, only saw that the information on the citizen's identity card and the land use right certificate matched, and therefore lent Nam the money.
The investigating agency determined that from December 22, 2023, to January 26, 2024, Dinh Hoai Nam purchased four land use right certificates for 16 million VND. Nam then used the forged certificates to mortgage the land and fraudulently obtain loans. The total amount of money Dinh Hoai Nam defrauded from the victims was 850 million VND. Of this amount, Truong Minh Nam, his accomplice, defrauded 300 million VND.
For the aforementioned offenses, Dinh Hoai Nam and Truong Minh Nam were prosecuted and brought to trial on two charges: Fraudulent appropriation of property and Using forged documents of an agency or organization.
At the trial, the two defendants admitted their crimes. Dinh Hoai Nam confessed that due to business losses and losing money playing online cryptocurrency games, he conceived the idea of committing fraud. After one successful scam, he continued to defraud many other people.
Despite knowing that Dinh Hoai Nam was suffering business losses and losing a lot of money, Truong Minh Nam still agreed to use a fake land title in his name and sign a transfer contract to commit fraud. At the trial, the defendant expressed remorse for his complicity in helping Hoai Nam carry out fraudulent acts and embezzle money from the victims.
Although he did not benefit from the crime, after Truong Minh Nam was arrested, the defendant influenced his family to compensate the victim with 200 million VND. Therefore, at the trial, the victim requested a reduced sentence for the defendant. With several mitigating circumstances, the court sentenced defendant Truong Minh Nam to 10 years in prison (7 years for the crime).Fraudulent appropriation of propertyand 3 years in prison for the crime of using forged documents of an agency or organization.
Meanwhile, defendant Dinh Hoai Nam was sentenced to 16 years and 6 months in prison; including 13 years and 6 months for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property, and 3 years for the crime of Using forged documents of an agency or organization.
Song Nam and his friend, both from the same hometown and sharing the same vision, collaborated in a business venture that violated the law and ended up in prison for their fraudulent activities, causing harm to many people.
