Exposing the land scam perpetrated by a young man in his 20s.

Selling "ghost" land brings in billions of dong.

The trial of defendant Vo Van Duc (31 years old), residing in Minh Chau commune, Dien Chau district, is being held for the crime of..."Fraudulent appropriation of property"A large number of people attended the event. Among them were many victims who had traveled long distances to the courthouse hoping to recover the money that Duc had defrauded and stolen from them.

Duc dropped out of school after completing 10th grade. Locally, he worked as a freelancer. During a time when land prices in Nghe An were skyrocketing, Duc seized the opportunity to become a real estate broker. His job brought him a high income, but he was dissatisfied with simply receiving a commission after each successful land transaction.

Driven by greed and debt, Duc devised fraudulent schemes related to land. He accepted deposits for the transfer of land plots that he did not own and had not been authorized to transfer by the landowners. He also provided false information to obtain land ownership certificates ("red books"), thereby swindling money from many people.

In addition, Duc also deceived many people into pooling money to buy land, then pocketed the money for personal use. Among the victims was a man born in 1989, residing in Yen Thanh district, who was defrauded by Duc multiple times in a short period.

Specifically, around April 2022, Duc called and deceived Mr. Tran Ba ​​Q., claiming he had a plot of land for sale at 700 million VND and asking if he was interested. When the customer met him in person to discuss the details, Duc lied to Mr. Q., saying that he had already bought the land from Ms. Tran Thi T. After viewing the land, the customer agreed to the transaction for 690 million VND, paying a deposit of 100 million VND. However, because the land belonged to Ms. T., Duc was unable to complete the transfer procedures for Mr. Q. as promised and misappropriated the deposit.

Exactly eight days later, Duc again deceived Mr. Q., claiming he had another plot of land for sale at 600 million VND. Just like before, Duc lied to Mr. Q., saying he had bought this land from Mrs. T. After viewing the land, the customer agreed to a price of 500 million VND and paid a 50 million VND deposit. Duc promised to complete the land transfer procedures within a month. However, because the land was not his, Duc was unable to complete the transfer.

Notably, using a similar tactic, Duc had previously tricked Mr. Q into buying two non-existent plots of land, then embezzled the money and spent it all.

Scamming people into "fixing" legal cases.

Not only did Duc swindle people out of land, but he also ventured into the business of "fixing legal cases" for those who needed it. Accordingly, on January 18, 2021, knowing that the two sons of Ms. Tran Thi X. (residing in Dien Bich commune, Dien Chau district) were being detained by the police for intentionally causing injury, Duc went to their house and said he could "arrange for the two brothers to receive a suspended sentence."

Initially, Duc quoted 150 million VND to cover the costs. After hearing this, Ms. X. trusted him and explained that she had borrowed 250 million VND from the bank to handle her son's affairs. Of that amount, 50 million VND had been used to compensate the victim, leaving 200 million VND outstanding.

Upon hearing this, Duc told Mrs. X to give him all the money, promising to return any remaining amount after he finished his work. Duc even showed generosity by giving Mrs. X 10 million dong to "use for visiting and supporting his two brothers."

Later, Duc visited Ms. X twice more, asking for more money to bribe officials to drop the case. Because she trusted him as a relative, Ms. X gave him the money without asking for a receipt. However, some time later, Ms. X's two children were still sentenced to prison. Only then did she realize she had been scammed out of 210 million VND and demanded that Duc return the money.

Investigators determined that, using the aforementioned methods, between January 2021 and May 2022, Vo Van Duc defrauded 13 victims, appropriating over 2.3 billion VND.

Day of Atonement

Before the witness stand, the defendant Duc sincerely confessed to his criminal acts. He admitted that he had no ability to influence the outcome of the case, nor the authority to issue land use right certificates, but he still committed the act because he wanted to defraud others.

In the presence of the victims, Duc confessed that the land plots he sold to them did not belong to him. The defendant advertised the land for sale and received deposits with the intention of misappropriating the victims' assets.

The owner of a plot of land that Vo Van Duc repeatedly falsely claimed as his own, then brought potential buyers to view the site, stated that he was completely unaware of Duc selling his land. He also did not authorize Duc to carry out the land transfer. “One day, I saw many cars carrying people to view the land. They were using their phones to record videos or take pictures of the land and talking to each other. I didn’t know what they were doing until later when I found out that Duc was bringing buyers to purchase the land, even though my family wasn’t selling it,” the owner stated in court.

The victims attending the trial demanded that the defendant return all the money he had stolen from them. The victims stated that they were deceived by the defendant's sweet words, which negatively impacted and disrupted their lives.

The court ruled that although the defendant was fully aware of the law, he committed fraud against many people out of greed, and therefore deserved severe punishment. However, it was also necessary to consider some mitigating circumstances for the defendant, such as surrendering to the authorities, making a sincere confession, partially compensating the victims for the damages, and his father being a war veteran…

After a thorough review of the case, the court sentenced the defendant Vo Van Duc to 17 years in prison for fraud and misappropriation of property. In addition, the court ordered the defendant to return all the stolen money to the victims.