Sentencing of “easy job, high salary” scammer
With the trick of “easy work, high salary”, Ha colluded with Thao to trick and sell many victims to companies abroad. Here, the workers were forced to do jobs that defrauded Vietnamese people.
On September 5, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first instance trial of defendants Le Van Ha (born 1999), residing in Nhan Hoa commune (Nghe An province) and Bui Thi Thao (born 1994, from Nghe An), residing in Lai Thieu ward, Ho Chi Minh City for the crime of "Human trafficking”. Because Thao is raising a young child, she requested to be tried in absentia.
The case file shows that in 2022, Thao went to Dubai to open a hair salon and met a Chinese man named A Phan (unknown background). A Phan asked Thao to find someone to take him to Thailand to work for a salary of 800 USD/month.
At the end of March 2023, Thao called Le Van Ha and asked if she knew anyone who wanted to go to Thailand to work with an attractive salary. Ha agreed to go and said she wanted to go first to see what the job was like before finding someone to take her.
After that, Thao arranged for Ha to fly to Thailand, then to Myanmar. When she arrived in Myanmar, Ha knew she had to commit online fraud, but because she had no job at home, she volunteered to stay. Ha also called Thao to inform her that the job abroad was a scam.
However, Ha and Thao still colluded to find someone to sell to the Chinese boss. From April 2023 to May 2023, the two subjects tricked 5 people into going to Myanmar to hand them over to the Chinese subject.
When the workers get there, they realize that they have to scam Vietnamese people by calling for investment in a “football score-fixing” website. They are forced to work 12 to 17 hours a day, and if they do not meet their quota, they have to work overtime and are fined. Their work is always monitored and supervised, and if they do not work, they will be beaten.
After taking 5 people to Myanmar, Thao was paid 25 million VND by A Phan. Of this amount, Thao gave 20 million VND to Ha. In addition, Ha also took 2 victims abroad by herself, earning 8 million VND.
As for the victims, after being tricked and sold, some escaped back to Vietnam. Some were rescued by the Blue Dragon Organization, but some victims' families had to send money to ransom them back.
At the trial, defendant Ha admitted to his crime. Ha said that at first, due to difficult circumstances, he agreed to go abroad. Later, although he knew that he would have to do fraudulent work in Myanmar, he was greedy and found someone to sell to the Chinese boss. The defendant expressed remorse and asked the court to consider reducing his sentence.
The panel of judges determined that the defendant's actions violated the law and were dangerous to society, so they sentenced Le Van Ha to 12 years in prison and defendant Bui Thi Thao to 5 years in prison.
