'Drawing' contracts to call for investment capital for 'virtual' land

Forged leader signature

In mid-March 2018, the Nghe An Provincial Police Investigation Agency received many petitions from victims in Vinh City accusing them of being scammed.

Although the petitions of the victims are from many different locations, the fraud methods are mostly the same. The victims were scammed when paying money with the purpose of converting land use rights, buying land for high profits, etc. Notably, the petitions all accuse the fraudsters of being officials of the land fund development center.

From the records and documents provided by the people, the investigators collected and verified. All the documents given to the victim by the subject had the signature of the leader and the red seal of the center, the document form was in accordance with the law. However, at that time, through initial examination, it was shown that the red seal of the center was the correct current model, but the signature was determined to be fake.

Realizing that this was an intentional act of fraud and appropriation of property, the investigators decided to prosecute the case and prosecute the defendant Tran Xuan Ha (born in 1983), residing in Hung Phuc commune, Hung Nguyen district, for the act of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". At the time of his arrest, Tran Xuan Ha was holding the position of Deputy Head of the Land Clearance Department 3 of the Vinh City Land Fund Development Center.

At the investigation agency, Ha confessed that one of the first "business" deals he made was by creating handwritten documents with the content of exempting land use fees and making land titles for victims. During the implementation of the 72m road project in Nghi Phu commune (Vinh city), Tran Xuan Ha accidentally learned that Mr. Le Trong Tr. received support from the State, compensation of more than 5 billion VND including land and assets on the land.

Because he needed money to pay off his debt to society, Ha came up with the idea.fraud and appropriation of propertyMr. Tr. Through the "cover" of being the Deputy Head of the Land Fund Development Center, Ha contacted Mr. Tr. and said that he could do the procedures for land use fee exemption and reduction, and at the same time make a red book for Mr. Tr. Because he trusted the appearance that Ha created, Mr. Tr. did not think twice but transferred money to Ha to take care of the matter with a total amount of 2.1 billion VND.

Seeing that the "business" seemed to be going well, Ha came up with a new trick to gain the trust of the victims. Thanks to his previous acquaintance, Ha suggested to Mr. Pham Cong B., a land officer of Hung Phuc ward (Vinh city), to contribute capital to a land investment contract to make a profit.

Because he trusted the cover Ha created along with the contract that Ha had "taken pains to" forge the signature of the Deputy Director of the Vinh City Land Fund Development Center, Mr. B. without any doubt gave Ha the 1 billion VND that he had saved.

Another case that Ha also deceived was Mr. Nguyen Van H. During the work, because of their acquaintance, Ha learned that Mr. H. was the head of Hamlet 17, Nghi Phu Commune, and was in need of buying land. Tran Xuan Ha immediately lied to Mr. H. that he needed to sell land plot A16 of Mrs. Nguyen Thi Ly.

On April 4, 2018, Ha made a contract to transfer land lot A16 and received 500 million VND from Mr. H. Then, using the excuse of needing money to complete the name change procedure, Ha took another 100 million VND from Mr. H.

Thus, in a short period of time, Tran Xuan Ha defrauded and appropriated the assets of 8 victims with an amount of up to 9.6 billion VND. The defendant stated that all of the above money was used by Ha to pay personal debts, without any recorded documents.

The path of fall

Tran Xuan Ha was born into a well-off family and his parents sent him to school. After graduating from university with a major in land in Hanoi, Ha was assigned to work at the Vinh City Land Fund Development Center, which is the same major he studied.

During his time at the center, Ha demonstrated his ability and qualifications, achieving the title of Emulation Fighter for many consecutive years and receiving a Certificate of Merit from the Vinh City People's Committee. With that achievement, Ha was appointed to the position of Deputy Head of the Center's Land Clearance Department 3. However, in his new role, when faced with many temptations, Tran Xuan Ha failed to maintain his composure and was not exemplary in performing his assigned tasks.

At the same time, due to lack of money to invest in some outside business plans, Ha fell into debt. In his desperation, he planned to commit fraud.

Having worked for many years at the Vinh City Land Fund Development Center, with functions and tasks related to appraisal, site clearance, compensation and resettlement, Ha clearly knows that many people receive land compensation money. By taking advantage of people's trust in appraisal officers, who are also leaders of a department, Ha proactively met and got to know people with money, who wanted to contribute capital to do business for high profits, then forged the leaders' signatures and used the center's seal to create capital contribution contracts, wrote loan papers with the content of contributing capital to buy land for high profits, promised to make land use right certificates, transfer land use rights... to appropriate people's property.

The trial of defendant Tran Xuan Ha for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" was held at the end of February 2019.

At the trial, the representative of the Procuracy stated that the right to own property is a right protected by the Constitution and criminal law, this is the inviolable right to property of citizens. The defendant himself is a qualified and educated person, and works in the field related to land compensation, so he clearly understands that the above action is fraudulent and illegal. Although he knows the law prohibits it, he still disregards it, using sophisticated tricks to create trust in the people, in order to carry out his fraudulent acts. The defendant's actions are especially serious, causing people to lose trust in State agencies, at the same time, affecting the security and order situation in the area.

When given the final say, defendant Tran Xuan Ha expressed remorse and repentance: "The defendant apologizes to the victims and hopes to receive leniency from the law so that he can soon return to work to earn money to remedy the consequences."

Hearing the court sentence him to 18 years in prison for "fraudulent appropriation of property", the defendant must compensate the victims for all the money he had appropriated, Ha turned his head to his relatives, raised his handcuffed hands to wipe away tears. Educated and with a position in society, but because of poverty due to debt, he disregarded the law and ended up in prison, that was the price Tran Xuan Ha had to pay.