Sentencing of female 'tycoon' of mountain town who defrauded hundreds of people and appropriated more than 24 billion VND

On April 25, at the headquarters of the People's Court of Nghe An province, the High People's Court in Hanoi opened a criminal appeal trial of defendant Nguyen Thi Thao (born 1959, residing in Con Cuong town, Nghe An) for fraud and appropriation of property.

Defendant Thao did not appeal the first instance judgment, but 143 victims filed appeals against the first instance judgment.

According to the indictment, in 1994, Hung Thao Private Enterprise was established, with Mr. Nguyen Phi Hung (born in 1956, residing in Con Cuong town, Con Cuong district) as the owner. This enterprise changed its business license for the third time with the business lines of buying and selling gold, silver, jewelry, handicrafts; buying and selling all kinds of motorbikes.

Although she has no function of raising capital and is not a business owner, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao (Mr. Hung's wife) issued deposit slips, using the seal of Hung Thao Private Enterprise to stamp the deposit slips, making people mistakenly believe that she sent money to her.

Defendant Nguyen Thi Thao at the trial. Photo: Khanh An

Ms. Thao's illegal deposit mobilization activities (including cash, foreign currency and gold) were carried out from 2009 to October 2015. After receiving a large amount of deposits from people but being unable to repay the debt, Ms. Thao directed the company's accountant to draft a decision to dissolve the company and announce the dissolution on the grounds of business losses, inability to pay employees, customers, and arising expenses...

Thao sent the enterprise dissolution procedures to the Con Cuong District Tax Department but did not notify and post the decision and notice of enterprise dissolution at the local government and enterprise headquarters as prescribed, nor did he notify the people who had deposited money.

Although there was a decision and announcement to dissolve the enterprise, from October 23, 2015, Ms. Thao continued to mobilize capital and receive deposits from people. On May 9, 2016, Ms. Thao was arrested by Nghe An Provincial Police for gambling (later sentenced to 7 months in prison by Con Cuong District People's Court, suspended). At this time, people just knew that Hung Thao Private Enterprise had dissolved and lost the ability to pay debts.

On December 23, 2016, Ms. Thao was arrested by Nghe An Provincial Police to clarify the act of fraud and property appropriation.

The investigation agency clarified that in just 7 months, Thao had defrauded 383 people, appropriating 24.8 billion VND. Nguyen Thi Thao's victims were mainly from Con Cuong, Anh Son, Do Luong, in which the least one person lost 6 million VND, the most up to more than half a billion VND.

Defendant Thao has paid back more than 2.3 billion VND in principal and 868 million VND in interest to the people. Therefore, Nguyen Thi Thao must be responsible for the 22.7 billion VND she appropriated.

On March 9, 2018, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance trial and sentenced Thao to life in prison for fraud and property appropriation and forced Thao to compensate the people for the amount of money he had appropriated.

Thao accepted life imprisonment and did not appeal for a reduced sentence. 143 victims filed an appeal to the appellate court, requesting clarification of the role and responsibility of Thao's husband and children in the fraud. The victims also requested that Thao be examined for signs of dissipating assets to her daughter. The victim, Ms. Xuan, appealed, asking Thao to compensate her with an additional 9 taels of gold with four 9999 numbers.

At the Appeal Court, Thao agreed to compensate Ms. Xuan with an additional four taels of 9999 gold.

The appellate panel determined that, regarding the victim's claim that the investigation agency had not yet considered Thao's husband and son's actions as accomplices, there was not enough basis to determine that Thao's husband and son discussed and helped each other use the money Thao had embezzled.

The Court of Appeal only considers the issues that the investigation agency, the People's Procuracy and the Court of First Instance have brought up to resolve in the case. Therefore, in this case, the investigation agency has not considered, prosecuted or handled the actions of Thao's son and husband. Therefore, if the victim has grounds to determine that Mr. Hung (now deceased) and Thao's son have acted as a supporter, accepted the will to help Thao and have used the misappropriated money together with Thao for spending, then they can continue to file a petition with the investigation agency for consideration.

The panel of judges also held that the investigation, case files and trial process did not provide any evidence to prove that Thao had transferred assets to her daughter, and that Thao’s daughter was currently managing the assets. If the victims have sufficient evidence to prove that Thao had transferred assets to her daughter, they have the right to file a petition with the enforcement agency to verify and carry out procedures in accordance with the law.

The appellate panel decided to partially accept Ms. Xuan's appeal, amend the first instance judgment on civil compensation for Ms. Xuan, not accept the appeals of other victims, keep the other issues of the first instance judgment unchanged, and sentence Thao to life in prison for fraud and appropriation of property.

Regarding civil liability, the defendant Thao must compensate the victims as the first instance judgment stated, forcing Mr. Nguyen Cao Cuong (Thao's son) to jointly compensate 9 victims. The defendant Thao must compensate Ms. Xuan with an additional 9 taels of 9999 gold.