'Drawing' a shophouse apartment to appropriate 2.2 billion VND
Having no job, Van claimed to be the company director, and even pretended that his father-in-law was the general director, so he could buy a shophouse apartment at a preferential price and appropriate 2.2 billion VND. Van lent his girlfriend 1.5 billion VND of this money.
On February 5, the Hanoi People's Court opened the first-instance criminal trial of defendant Nguyen Hai Van (born 1984, residing in Thuong Dinh ward, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi) and sentenced him to 9 years in prison for "Fraudulent appropriation of property".
According to the first instance verdict, Van had a social acquaintance with Mr. Dinh Hoang Anh (born in 1979, residing in Ba Dinh district, Hanoi). In early June 2021, through discussion, Van learned that Mr. Hoang Anh was in need of buying a shophouse apartment at the Shophouse Commercial Townhouse Complex combined with commercial services and resort hotels in Hai Dinh ward, Dong Hoi city, Quang Binh province, with Hai Thanh Company as the project investor.
Because he had no job and needed money for personal use and to pay off debt, Van claimed to be the Director of Hanoi Group Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company.
In addition, Van also impersonated his father-in-law as the General Director of Hai Thanh Company, so he could buy a house in the above project at a preferential price. Van's purpose in providing false information was to appropriate Mr. Hoang Anh's money.
To further strengthen the trust of Mr. Hoang Anh, Van took documents from Hai Thanh Company's advertising page such as: Project design drawings, photos of apartment floors and sent them to Mr. Hoang Anh and promised the project's incentives that if the full house purchase price is paid, the price will be reduced by 3%. Van committed that if the payment is made according to the project's progress, the house purchase price will be around 85 to 90 million VND/m2.2.
Believing that the information Van provided was true, Mr. Hoang Anh agreed to invest in the project and asked Van to deposit to buy a shophouse with an area of 86.6 square meters, built with 5 floors.
On June 24, 2021, at Van's request, Mr. Hoang Anh went to Viet A Bank, Tay Ha Noi Branch to transfer 1.2 billion VND to Van's account with the content: Hoang Anh transferred the deposit to buy a house. On July 25, 2021, Van continued to ask Mr. Hoang Anh to deposit 1.2 billion VND to complete the purchase and sale procedures and issue a pink book under the name of Dinh Hoang Anh.
On July 27, 2021, Mr. Hoang Anh went to the bank to deposit 1 billion VND into Van's account. The remaining 200,000,000 VND, Mr. Hoang Anh and Van agreed that in September 2021, when he entered Quang Binh province to sign the sales contract with the investor, Mr. Hoang Anh would give the rest to Van.
After receiving money from Mr. Hoang Anh, Van used it for personal expenses and transferred 1.5 billion VND to lend to his girlfriend...
When the contract was due, Mr. Hoang Anh called Van and Van admitted that she had not yet returned the 2.2 billion VND she had received from Mr. Hoang Anh to Hai Thanh Company but had used it all for personal use... During the investigation, Van only returned 1.1 billion VND to Mr. Hoang Anh and had also appropriated 1.1 billion VND.
In addition to the 9-year prison sentence, the Trial Panel also ordered the defendant Van to compensate the victim for the remaining amount of money he misappropriated according to the provisions of law.
