Unveiling the mystery of the suitcase 'offering to the gods'

The Truth About Inherited Wealth

In early 2021, a number of complaints were sent to the Criminal Police Department - Nghe An Provincial Police, it was known that most of the victims were scammed of large sums of money in an unprecedented manner. Immediately, the case of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" was verified and the signs of complicity of a number of related subjects were clarified.

At the investigation agency, Nguyen Thi Thuy confessed that she had made it all up to cheat the victims out of money. Photo: An Quynh

On June 2, 2021, the police arrested Nguyen Thi Thuy (born in 1976, residing in Tang Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, Nghe An). This is the first suspect mentioned in the complaints.

Through research, it is known that after a period of wandering in the South, Thuy returned to her hometown. No one knows what Thuy does, but many people in the area are amazed at her willingness to spend money.

This woman often uses luxury cars and changes expensive phones frequently. The builder who built the house for Thuy and her husband was "blind-eyed" many times when the owner "accidentally" opened the safe full of cash. Thuy always boasted that she was blessed by the gods and had to go to worship diligently.

During the process of participating in the ceremonies at the temples, Thuy had the opportunity to get to know many people, but this woman only sought to befriend the rich and fanatic. No one knew that these people were gradually being lured into the fraudulent play directed by Thuy herself.

Evidence of the case. Photo: Document

"Nguyen Thi Thuy spread the news that she had inherited a huge fortune from a foreigner, including foreign currency, gold, and cars. Thuy told the victims that they were not randomly chosen, but that they had a connection with the deceased, and that they only needed to pray for the soul of this person to receive a share, about several tens of billions of dong," said Captain Nguyen Trung Hieu - Deputy Head of Team 2, Criminal Police Department, Nghe An Provincial Police.

In addition, Thuy said that this huge amount of assets is about to return to Vietnam but is stuck in some procedures, having to hire lawyers and some authorities to complete legal documents.

"To make the victims believe, Thuy also showed a detailed schedule of work with lawyers, authorities and expenses. Trusting them, the victims gave Thuy money with the strong belief that... they were about to get rich," Captain Hieu added.

Authorities determined that Thuy began her scam in February 2019. The scam lasted for more than a year and a half, and the huge amount of money that Thuy presented to lure victims showed no signs of becoming a reality. However, for some reason, the victims still believed her and transferred money to Thuy.

Captain Hieu said: "Initially, we proved that Nguyen Thi Thuy had defrauded and appropriated more than 5 billion VND from many victims. Some victims lost a few tens of millions of VND, others lost billions of VND. It is difficult to understand that Thuy's victims were mostly highly educated people with high status, holding management positions in agencies and businesses, but still believed in the unbelievable situation Thuy created."

One of Thuy's many victims was the head of a business in Vinh City, with a monthly income of up to hundreds of millions of dong. This person trusted Thuy so much that he sold his house to give her money to buy gifts for the holidays. To have money to invest in the tens of billions of dong of assets that he was about to receive, this person borrowed money from many places, leading to bankruptcy and being fired.

Even when Thuy was arrested, the police contacted the victims but did not receive cooperation. Many people still believed that the assets were about to be in their pockets. In the process of collecting evidence of Thuy's crimes, investigators had to spend a lot of time convincing the victims to cooperate and provide information.

"Working with the police, Nguyen Thi Thuy admitted that there was no inheritance, the whole thing was a play that Thuy came up with. The amount of money that the subject embezzled and the victim could have been much more," the investigator added.

Suddenly…falling into a trap

One of the most frequently deceived victims was the family of Mrs. Bui Thi Hien, residing in Nhan Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district. One person boasted that she often went to make offerings at temples and pagodas, and the other was a shaman who built an altar in the house, so the two quickly became close and trusted each other.

Believing in this play, Ms. Hien's sisters gave Thuy more than 5.5 billion VND. Photo: An Quynh

Thuy told Mrs. Hien that she had just been left a huge fortune by a couple in Ho Chi Minh City, including 189 billion VND, 5 luxury cars, 15 high-end motorbikes, 15 expensive phones and 15 taels of gold. The couple had now passed away, and a relative in the US was going to take care of the inheritance for Thuy, but the process was having problems and she needed money to settle it.

If Ms. Hien gave Thuy money to quickly resolve this inheritance case, Thuy would divide 79 billion VND and many other assets from the inheritance. Ms. Hien thought it was real, so she transferred the total amount of 742 million VND to Thuy's account many times or had someone else give her the money.

Nguyen Thi Thuy at the investigation agency. Photo: An Quynh

Knowing that Ms. Hien's younger brother was rich and had a strong belief in spirituality, Thuy targeted this new "prey". With the same scenario of needing to receive inheritance and promising to give him 57 billion VND, along with a luxury car and a high-end motorbike, Thuy convinced this man to give her money. Not only that, Thuy also told this man "it's a blessing to meet him" and convinced this person to introduce friends to contribute money to share the inheritance with Thuy.

In just over 1 year, from the beginning of 2019 to mid-2021, Ms. Bui Thi Hien gave Thuy 742 million VND, and her younger brother gave nearly 4.9 billion VND.

To increase the credibility of her play, Thuy brought a purple suitcase to Mrs. Hien's house and said that it contained 15 billion VND. "This is only a part of the inheritance but it cannot be opened yet because it has to be offered to the gods," Thuy said. After bringing the suitcase to Mrs. Hieu's house as a "testimonial", Thuy brought it back to her house, saying "to offer to the gods", when the inheritance procedures are completed, she will open it and divide it between Mrs. Hien and Mr. Hieu as previously agreed.

Although she did not know what was in it, Mrs. Hien believed it completely and told her brother. Thinking that part of the inheritance was in the suitcase, Mrs. Hien and her sisters did not hesitate to give Thuy money. Even without cash, Mr. Hieu "mobilized" many brothers, friends, and colleagues.

Seeing that the inheritance procedures were not completed, suspecting that Ms. Hien's younger brother had been cheated, one of the people who lent him money reported it to the police. Nguyen Thi Thuy's "unimaginable" play had just ended. Before being arrested, Thuy had received a total of 5.5 billion VND from Ms. Hien's sisters and had spent and paid off all of the debt.

During the search of Thuy's house, the police seized many documents showing Thuy's loans and debts, along with the purple suitcase that was introduced as "containing 15 billion VND of inheritance". "When the suitcase was opened, it was filled with old clothes and scrap paper", said an investigator involved in solving the case.

When the incident was discovered, the two victims demanded that Nguyen Thi Thuy compensate them for the entire amount of money they had appropriated, but then asked that the two parties resolve the matter themselves. At the trial, Ms. Bui Thi Hien and Mr. Bui Huy Hieu said that before the trial took place, the defendant Thuy's family had paid the full amount of more than 5.5 billion VND.

For the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property", Nguyen Thi Thuy was sentenced to 19 years in prison by the People's Court of Nghe An province. Regarding civil liability, because the victim requested that the two parties resolve the matter themselves, the court did not consider it.

The trial ended, the defendant was still sobbing. But with such a detailed plan, defrauding many people, many times with such a large amount of money, were the defendant’s tears in court truly remorseful or just “crocodile tears”…