Hundreds of people were scammed because they poured money into the "pie in the sky project" of 3 tycoons.

Today, September 6, the People's Court of Hanoi brought defendant Hoang Van Cuong (born in 1960, in Hoang Mai) to trial for fraud and property appropriation.

According to the accusation, Vietnam Real Estate Floor Joint Stock Company was established from April 2008 to March 2009. Mr. Le Hong Bang (born in 1976) is the company's General Director and the founding shareholders do not have capital to contribute to business activities. The company has no business activities and no financial reports. The company's accounting books show that from its establishment to March 2009, the company had no money and no assets.

Hoang Ha Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company (Hoang Ha Company) with Mr. Ha Tuan Linh (born in 1966, in Hai Ba Trung) as director and Cuong Thinh Investment and Construction Development Joint Stock Company (Cuong Thinh Company) with defendant Hoang Van Cuong as director are both companies that do not have financial capacity, do not have enough conditions and do not register to invest in creating houses and construction works for business as prescribed.

But from December 2008 to July 2009, Messrs. Bang, Linh, and Cuong signed 4 joint venture contracts to invest and operate housing projects: Project 683, Loc Hoa project, Cuu Long project, and Phuong Dong project in Minh Khai commune, Tu Liem district (old), now Minh Khai ward, Nam Tu Liem district, Hanoi.

All four of the above projects have not been approved for planning by the Hanoi People's Committee, nor have they been converted from agricultural land to residential land, have not been approved for investors, and have not yet had a decision approving land allocation for housing construction projects...

The projects do not have a legal basis for formation. Messrs. Bang, Cuong, and Linh themselves know clearly that all three companies do not have the function of project business and do not have the financial capacity to ensure project implementation.

The accusation is that the 3 "big guys" used fraudulent tricks, created fake legal documents of the projects; as well as signed joint venture contracts to create the names of the projects; hired the making of project design drawings to divide the lots and clearly stated that the project investors were Vietnam Real Estate Floor Joint Stock Company, Cuong Thinh Company, Hong Ha Company, to promote and introduce to everyone.

Next, the three men bought agricultural land from some households and leveled the land (illegally) to make people believe that the project was real and was being implemented, so those who wanted to buy a house paid money in the form of a "loan contract" or "deposit" to register to buy an apartment, which was actually a land sale.

With the above tricks, from 3-7/2009, Mr. Bang signed 758 loan contracts with 397 people who wanted to register to buy apartments and appropriated more than 347 billion VND. In August 2018, the High People's Court in Hanoi sentenced Mr. Bang to life in prison.

Previously, the Investigation Agency had prosecuted the defendant Cuong for the crime of Fraudulent Appropriation of Property as an accomplice. However, Mr. Cuong fled. Regarding the case, Mr. Linh is also on the run.

In October 2021, Mr. Cuong surrendered to the Hanoi Police and confessed to his crime. The investigation agency determined that Mr. Cuong and Mr. Bang created two projects: Residential Area 683 and Loc Hoa project.

Mr. Cuong clearly knew that these projects were not real. Vietnam Real Estate Floor Joint Stock Company and Cuong Thinh Company had not been assigned land, but only agricultural land, but they still implemented the project and together with Mr. Le Hong Bang, provided false information to introduce and collect money from selling apartments under the form of signing loan contracts.

The investigation agency determined that Mr. Bang transferred 2.5 billion VND to Mr. Cuong and Mr. Cuong used this money for the company's operations and expenses.

In addition, from June to July 2009, Mr. Cuong, as the director of Cuong Thinh Company, signed 36 receipts from 25 customers who wanted to buy land in the form of loan contracts and then appropriated a total amount of more than 46 billion VND.

Today’s trial had to be adjourned due to the victim presenting new evidence. The panel of judges felt that it was necessary to review and evaluate this evidence, so they postponed the trial to September 26.