Exposing the land selling scam of a 9X guy
(Baonghean.vn) - Although he did not have any land, taking advantage of the land fever in Nghe An, Vo Van Duc still invited others to contribute capital or invited customers to deposit to buy land plots that were not his. In addition, Duc also "bragged" about his ability to run a case to appropriate money from relatives.
Selling "wild duck" land to earn billions
The trial of defendant Vo Van Duc (31 years old), residing in Minh Chau commune, Dien Chau district, for the crime of"Fraudulent appropriation of property"There were quite a lot of people attending. Among them, many victims also traveled a long way to court in the hope of getting back the money that Duc had defrauded and appropriated.
Duc dropped out of school after 10th grade. Locally, this young man worked as a freelancer. At a time when land prices in Nghe An were constantly fluctuating due to fever, Duc also took the opportunity to practice his profession. The "land broker" profession brought him a high income, but the young man was not satisfied with only receiving commission after each successful land transaction.
Due to his greed and debt, Duc devised a scheme to defraud people related to land. Accordingly, Duc received deposits to transfer plots of land that were not under his ownership and were not authorized by the landowner to transfer. Duc also provided false information to receive money to complete procedures for issuing “red books”, thereby appropriating money from many people.
In addition, Duc also tricked many people into pooling money to buy land and then pocketed the money for personal use. Among the victims was a man born in 1989, residing in Yen Thanh district, who was scammed by Duc many times in a short period of time.
Specifically, around April 2022, Duc phoned Mr. Tran Ba Q. to trick him into thinking he had a plot of land he wanted to sell for 700 million VND, asking if he would buy it. When the customer met him in person to discuss the details, Duc tricked Mr. Q. into thinking he had already bought the plot of land from Ms. Tran Thi T. After viewing the land, the customer agreed to make the transaction for 690 million VND, depositing 100 million VND. However, because the plot of land belonged to Ms. T., Duc could not complete the transfer procedure to Mr. Q. as promised and appropriated the deposit.
Exactly 8 days later, Duc tricked Mr. Q. that he wanted to sell another plot of land for 600 million VND. Just like the previous time, Duc tricked Mr. Q. that this plot of land had been purchased from Mrs. T. After viewing the land, the customer agreed to a price of 500 million VND, with a deposit of 50 million VND. Duc promised to complete the land transfer procedures within 1 month. However, because the above plot of land was not his, Duc could not carry out the land transfer.
It is worth mentioning that previously, using similar tricks, Duc had fraudulently sold two "duck" plots of land to Mr. Q. and then appropriated the money to spend it all.
Fraudulent "trial run"
Not only defrauding others with land, Duc also "encroached" into the field of "fixing sentences" for those in need. Accordingly, on January 18, 2021, he learned that the two sons of Mrs. Tran Thi X. (residing in Dien Bich commune, Dien Chau district) were being detained by the police for the act of intentionally causing injury. Duc came to the house and said he could "take care of getting the two of them a suspended sentence".
At first, Duc offered 150 million VND to cover the expenses. After hearing what Duc said, Mrs. X. believed him and explained that she had just borrowed 250 million VND from the bank to take care of her child's work. Of that, 50 million VND was used to compensate the victim, leaving 200 million VND.
Hearing that, Duc immediately told Mrs. X. to give him all the money, and after finishing the work, he would return any remaining money. Duc also showed his nobility by sending Mrs. X. 10 million VND to "use to visit and support his two brothers".
After that, Duc went to see Mrs. X twice to ask for more money to pay for the case. Because she believed that she was a relative, Mrs. X gave him the money without asking him to write a receipt. However, after a while, Mrs. X's two children were still sentenced to prison. Only then did the woman realize that she had been cheated out of 210 million VND, so she asked Duc to return the money.
The investigation agency determined that with the above tricks, from January 2021 to May 2022, Vo Van Duc defrauded 13 victims, appropriating more than 2.3 billion VND.
Day of Atonement
At the witness stand, defendant Duc honestly confessed his crime. The defendant admitted that he had no ability to run a case, nor the authority to issue a land use right certificate, but still committed the crime because he wanted to appropriate other people's money.
In the presence of the victims, Duc confessed that the plots of land he sold to the victims were not his. The defendant advertised the land for sale and received deposits with the intention of appropriating the victims’ property.
The owner of a plot of land that Vo Van Duc repeatedly falsely claimed as his own and then brought customers to see the land said that he was completely unaware that Duc was selling his land. He also did not authorize Duc to carry out the land transfer. “One day, I saw many cars carrying people to see the land. They used their phones to record videos or take pictures of the land and then talked to each other. I did not know what they were doing, only later did I find out that Duc brought customers to buy the land while my family did not sell it,” he stated at the trial.
The victims came to the court to request the defendant to return all the money that had been taken from them. The victims stated that because they believed the defendant's sweet words, they were cheated out of their money, which affected and disrupted their lives.
The panel of judges determined that although the defendant was fully aware of the law, he committed fraud against many people out of greed and therefore needed to be severely punished. However, it is also necessary to consider some mitigating circumstances for the defendant such as turning himself in, honestly reporting, having partially compensated the victims for the damage, his father being a war invalid...
After considering the case in its entirety, the court sentenced the defendant Vo Van Duc to 17 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property. In addition, the court also ordered the defendant to return all the money he had misappropriated to the victims.
