Death penalty for treasury officer who embezzled 44 billion VND for gambling
To have money for football betting, Long took advantage of his position as Chief Accountant of the State Treasury of Nha Be District (HCMC), forging the signatures of several employees to embezzle more than 44 billion VND.
On June 14, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Tran Minh Long (former Chief Accountant of the State Treasury of Nha Be District) to death for the crimes of Embezzlement and Gambling.
In relation to the case, the defendants Phung Manh Hung (27 years old) received 6 years in prison, Tran Thanh Phong (39 years old, former driver of the State Treasury of Can Gio district) was sentenced to 3 years in prison, Vu Ba Linh (45 years old, former accountant of the State Treasury of district 10) received 3 years in prison but was given a suspended sentence for the crime of Gambling.
According to the indictment, in November 2008, Long was appointed Chief Accountant of the State Treasury of Nha Be District. He often bet on international football and lost a lot of money, owing many places. To have "capital" to recover, Long forged the signatures of the director of the State Treasury of Nha Be District and the accountant to take money from customers' accounts.
Defendants Tran Minh Long (striped shirt) and Phung Manh Hung stand listening to the verdict.
From March to July 2011, Long made 10 electronic payment orders transferring more than VND44 billion from customers' accounts to Hung's account at the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.
To conceal his actions, every time a customer came to check the amount of money in his account, Long personally signed the minutes confirming the balance at the treasury. Therefore, the customer and Nha Be treasury did not discover the missing amount. In addition, Long also adjusted the "virtual" amount of money using the electronic network between the customer's accounts.
Long told the court that he had known Hung since 2010. The two started an international football betting ring in early 2011. Phong and Linh also joined the ring. Initially, Long used his personal money to bet with Hung, but after losing continuously, he thought of a way to take money from the treasury. When he got money from the treasury, Long "covered" the betting money for Phong and Linh. If he lost, Long transferred the money to Hung's account, if he won, Hung transferred it back.
Having won a lot of money, Long did not hesitate to bet large sums of money, sometimes up to 1.5 billion VND per match. When the incident was discovered, Long's account only had 8 billion VND left.
According to Express-M
