Deposits to buy land in Le Thanh Hong's projects, can investors get their money back?

Mobilizing hundreds of billions of dong

Ms. NTL is currently in the Czech Republic, through a nephew in Hai Duong City, she deposited to buy land at a "project" of Le Thanh Hong.

Mrs. L. only knew that the land was in Ai Quoc ward (Hai Duong city), and she delegated all other matters to her nephew. Mrs. L.'s nephew, Mr. PVT, learned about the project through a friend, so he did not know if the project had been approved. After that, Mr. PVT put down more than 300 million VND, along with Mrs. L.'s 200 million VND, to deposit to buy the land through an intermediary.

After the Hai Duong Provincial Police Department of Investigation Security initiated a case to investigate Le Thanh Hong (born in 1973, residing at 250 Quang Trung Street, Quang Trung Ward, Hai Duong City) for "fraudulent appropriation of property" at the beginning of this year, Mr. PVT hastily informed his aunt that he had been scammed. Following the instructions of some people and information posted on the Hai Duong Electronic Newspaper on January 13, 2025, Mr. PVT said he was filing a complaint.

"My biggest wish is to get my money back. This is my first time investing in real estate so I am very inexperienced and can only blame myself. Now, my aunt is still asking me to pay her back so I am even more confused," said Mr. PVT.

Ms. BVT in Hai Duong City also spent more than 200 million VND "contributing capital" with a friend to invest in land in Le Thanh Hong's projects. According to Ms. BVT, she had previously invested idle money in land in this way a few times, and if there was no profit, she would break even and never lost money. Just like the previous times, this time Ms. T. gave money to her close friend without knowing where the land was, and entrusted all transactions to the above-mentioned friend.

The above mentioned people are just a small group of many victims of this scam.

According to information obtained by Hai Duong Newspaper reporters, up to this point, about 100 investors have filed complaints, with the amount of money paid to Le Thanh Hong being about 300 billion VND. Le Thanh Hong has been prosecuted and temporarily detained, and hundreds of victims are very confused with the question of whether they will be able to get back the money they invested.

According to people with experience in real estate investment, there are many others who have been scammed but may not report it and accept losing money, because the amount is not too large or because of the origin of the money and other reasons.

"In fact, real estate investment like in this case has happened before. Investors and project owners trade on their own, even though they may know the project has not been approved. With projects that are later approved, investors can make a profit. But with projects that are not approved by competent authorities or fall apart like the Le Thanh Hong case, investors must determine in advance that they will most likely lose everything," said Mr. NHT, an investor in many real estate projects.

Difficult to get money back

Recently, in many localities, there have been consecutive fraud cases related to real estate projects with the amount of money embezzled reaching hundreds, even thousands of billions of VND.

These subjects often use tricks to mobilize capital with high interest rates, provide false information about the project... to attract many investors to participate in order to appropriate assets. Therefore, investors need to be very alert, carefully research information about real estate projects before participating in capital contribution.

There are also projects that have not yet been formed but the project builders need money so they have mobilized money against regulations in the hope that when the project is approved, there will be money to compensate. Investors can also "sell green rice", that is, after putting down money, they sell it to others to collect the difference.

Lawyer Diep Nang Binh, Head of Tinh Thong Luat Law Office (Hanoi) analyzed that according to the provisions of the law, providing false information about a real estate project to appropriate investors' assets can be considered an act of fraud and appropriation of assets and is a violation of the law.

Suppose in the case of Le Thanh Hong, the Investigation Security Agency of Hai Duong Province Police has prosecuted and concluded that Hong committed the above acts, then depending on the nature and extent of the act, the violator may be subject to administrative or criminal sanctions and compensation for damages (if any).

For real estate projects that have been licensed and approved by competent state agencies, investors can reclaim the money or other assets they have invested. For real estate projects that have not been approved by state agencies, it will be very difficult to recover the money or other assets they have invested.

"If during the process of resolving the case, the investigation agency, prosecution agency and trial agency recover the money and other assets that the subject has illegally profited from, the investors can be compensated for part or all of the money and other assets invested. Therefore, investors who are victims in this case need to proactively contact the authorities for a quick resolution," said lawyer Diep Nang Binh.