The 'master swindler' couple had their debts paid off by a wealthy businessman.

Having been swindled out of nearly 100 billion VND by the couple Van, the real estate tycoon was allowed by the court to recover his assets and pay off other victims on their behalf.

On October 16th, after a week of trial and deliberation, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced La Thi Thuy Van (61 years old) to life imprisonment and Lam Phuc Lam (59 years old, Van's husband) to 20 years in prison for the crime of fraud and appropriation of property.

Over 60 individuals with relevant rights and obligations accused the couple, Van and her husband, of misappropriating over 191 billion VND. The investigating agency determined this to be a civil matter. The court reserved for them the right to file lawsuits in other cases.

The court accepted the settlement reached between Van and her husband and the biggest victim in the case - Mr. Tiec, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tin Nghia Trading, Construction and Service Company.

Accordingly, Mr. Tiec was granted ownership of the property at 64 Nguyen Van Troi (which Van and her husband had bought from local residents and asked him to contribute capital to a project before misappropriating the money). He was obligated to repay nearly 30 billion VND on behalf of the defendants to two other victims and one related party; and to negotiate with the remaining households in the property to complete the procedures for obtaining ownership certificates.

During the trial, Van and her husband requested the court to transfer ownership of the entire house at 64 Nguyen Van Troi to Mr. Tiec. He would then be obligated to pay off the couple's debts to other parties.

Van and her husband listen to the verdict. Photo: Hai Duyen.

The court ruled that, although Van and her husband did not admit to the fraud, the investigation results and evidence showed that the defendants used a house as collateral or received capital contributions from multiple people to embezzle a large sum of money.

According to the allegations, around 2005, Van learned that the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee planned to sell the cluster of townhouses at 64 Nguyen Van Troi Street (Phu Nhuan District) to 20 households who were renting them. Although they had not yet been granted ownership certificates, Van and her husband still proposed to buy them for a project at a price of nearly 3,300 gold ounces and 900 million VND.

To obtain the funds for the purchase, Van and her husband used the property to sign capital contribution, purchase, and mortgage contracts with 11 organizations and individuals, receiving hundreds of billions of VND.

Specifically, Van and her husband used the documents of 20 apartments as collateral to borrow nearly 2,500 taels of gold in two separate loans from Ms. Duong Thi Bach Diep; they also sold these properties to many people, receiving tens of billions of dong in return.

In early 2007, the couple met with Mr. Tiec and told him they had bought the house at 64 Nguyen Van Troi Street, which they hadn't sold or mortgaged to anyone yet, and asked the real estate tycoon to invest in a project. Mr. Tiec agreed to give Van 33 billion VND upfront.

During this time, upon discovering that Van and her husband had mortgaged the property to multiple people, Ms. Diep and her previous partners reported the matter to the police. Van and her husband subsequently received an additional 50 billion VND in investment from Mr. Tiec. Using this money to repay Ms. Diep and several others, Van and her husband were persuaded to withdraw their complaints.

In addition, Van and her husband also received 8 billion VND from Mr. Tiec in connection with the sale of a house on Nguyen Van Dau Street, Binh Thanh District.

Regarding Van receiving a deposit of 230 taels of gold from this wealthy businessman to purchase the villa at 293A Nguyen Van Troi, but then transacting with other people, the investigating agency determined it to be a civil matter.

Over 20 years ago, while serving a sentence for fraud, Van met Lam and they became close. After her release from prison, they became husband and wife and continued to carry out increasingly sophisticated and large-scale fraud.

According to VNE