Bankrupt because of virtual money, woman in Thanh Chuong planned a sophisticated fraud, appropriating 11 billion VND

Sophisticated tricks

Nguyen Thi Van (born in 1988), from Thanh Lien commune, Thanh Chuong district, but with her husband and children rented a room to live in Trung Do ward, Vinh city. After a period of freelance work, around mid-2019, Van participated in investing money in the floors.virtual currency tradingon the Internet. But the more he invested, the more Van lost. Not stopping there, this man continued to borrow money to invest but lost everything. Under the pressure of paying off debt and the desire to continue investing in virtual money, Van came up with the idea of ​​​​fraud by using the service of transferring money to customers' accounts.

Accordingly, Van approached many victims, providing information that she had acquaintances with many customers who were in the business of selling motorbikes, used cars or transporting goods and had a need to transfer large sums of money. Then, Nguyen Thi Van used 12 bank accounts of herself, friends and relatives to deceive them into giving Van the accounts of business and trading customers so that the victims would trust her to give money to Van to provide money transfer services for the customers. Van agreed with the victims to pay a service fee of 3,000 VND/1 million VND. With the money she received, Van would transfer back a part of the principal and service fee to create trust with the victims, the remaining amount would be used to pay debts and continue to invest in virtual currency but suffered losses and lost the ability to pay.

Defendant Van shed tears when the representative of the Procuracy mentioned her husband and children. Photo: Tran Vu

One of the victims that Van defrauded was Ms. Dinh Thi L., residing in Vinh City. Through acquaintances and the purchase and sale of phone SIM cards, around September 2020, Van had the idea of ​​defrauding and appropriating money from this woman. When meeting her, Van introduced herself as a money transfer service provider and knew many large business customers who had a high demand for money transfers.

To gain Ms. L's trust, Van used many bank accounts registered in the names of her relatives and friends and introduced them as accounts of business and trading customers. Van also convinced Ms. L with an agreement to receive a service fee of 3,000 VND/1 million VND.

During the period of 1 year (from August 2020 to August 2021), the money transfer took place in the form of bank transfer. Ms. L. transferred more than 431 billion VND to Van many times. Nguyen Thi Van transferred back to Ms. L. more than 426 billion VND. Thus, the total amount of money that Van appropriated from Ms. L. was more than 4.4 billion VND. In fact, Van used the original amount that Ms. L. gave her to pay many other people and invest in buying and selling virtual currency online but continued to lose money.

Nguyen Thi Van also defrauded and appropriated money in a similar manner to other victims. The investigation agency determined that from June 2019 to August 2021, Nguyen Thi Van committed 7 acts of fraud, appropriating nearly 11 billion VND. By early August 2021, fearing that creditors would demand money, Van turned off communication and fled her rented room in Vinh City. On November 1, 2021, Nguyen Thi Van turned herself in to the police, confessing to all acts of fraud and appropriation of property.

Tears when talking about husband and children

Recently, the People's Court of Nghe An province brought defendant Nguyen Thi Van to trial for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property. The defendant stated that because she lost money investing in virtual currency, she committed fraud as charged in the indictment. The amount of money she appropriated was used to invest in virtual currency, pay back the principal and pay for services. Regarding the money she received from the fraud, the defendant stated that she had spent it all and was currently "unable to pay the victims". The female defendant asked the court to consider reducing her sentence so that she could return to work soon and pay back the money to the victims.

Defendant Nguyen Thi Van received a life sentence. Photo: Tran Vu

According to the representative of the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province who held the right to prosecute at the trial, this is a case that the prosecution agency had to struggle with in the verification issue. The investigation lasted for a whole year because of the many victims and the large amount of money. The process of verifying the defendant's bank accounts showed that in one day the defendant made many transactions of receiving, transferring money as well as investing in stock exchanges and virtual currency investment floors. The transactions were so many that the defendant himself could not remember the total amount. This amount of money was not the defendant's sweat and tears, so the defendant could not control it.

Throughout the trial, the defendant showed almost no emotion. Only when the representative of the Nghe An Provincial People's Procuracy, who was the prosecutor at the trial, mentioned the husband who loved his wife dearly and the young child who would no longer have a mother's care, did the female defendant quietly shed tears. The female defendant turned around, bowed her head, and apologized to the victim and her relatives. Some relatives who were summoned to court as related parties also shed tears.

The panel of judges determined that in this case, the defendant Van had committed many acts of fraud, appropriating a large amount of money, so a severe penalty was needed to serve as a general deterrent and prevention. However, the defendant's proactive surrender, partially redressing the damage to the victims and their families with revolutionary contributions, and his honest confession and repentance during the investigation and trial were mitigating circumstances according to the regulations.

After a comprehensive review of the case, the court sentenced the defendant Nguyen Thi Van to life in prison for fraud and appropriation of property. In civil matters, the court ordered the defendant to compensate the entire amount of money she had appropriated from the victims (minus the amount of compensation she had previously paid).