Sentenced to 12 years in prison for using fake land books to commit fraud

Defendant Trieu Dai Hung at trial

The jury sentenced the defendant to 9 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property; 3 years in prison for using fake documents of the agency. The total sentence is 12 years in prison and compensation for the victim is over 2.8 billion VND.

According to the case file, because he needed money to pay off his debt and to do business with Ms. TTMP (a credit officer, working at a bank with a branch in Bac Lieu), defendant Trieu Dai Hung searched for a Certificate of land use rights and house ownership online for 10 million VND to mortgage to lend money to others. Hung provided information about the land plot and house that needed to be faked at address 21, Tran Phu, Ward 3 (the area with the most expensive real estate prices in Bac Lieu City) to a stranger via Zalo account; the Certificate of land use rights and fake house were sent to the defendant by bus.

After obtaining the fake land use rights and house ownership certificates (hereinafter referred to as fake red books), from June 10, 2020 to June 1, 2021, defendant Trieu Dai Hung used this fake red book to borrow money from 2 victims. The first time on June 10, 2020, Trieu Dai Hung used the fake red book as collateral to borrow 2 billion VND from Ms. Le Thi Ph. Ms. Ph. requested that the defendant make a notarized contract to transfer land use rights and house ownership. The loan amount was calculated at an interest rate of 2.75%. After 2 months, because of work, Ms. Le Thi Ph. recovered the capital and introduced the defendant to borrow from her sister, Ms. Le Bich Ph.

The second time, from August 20, 2020 to June 1, 2021, Trieu Dai Hung continued to use the fake red book as collateral to borrow from Ms. Le Bich Ph. a total of 4 times, for an amount of 3.5 billion VND, including returning the loan of 2 billion to Ms. Le Thi Ph. In this loan, Hung canceled the transfer contract with Ms. Le Thi Ph. and continued to make a transfer contract with Ms. Bich Ph. During the transaction, the total amount of interest Ms. Bich Ph. collected from the defendant was up to more than 643 million VND.

Because the defendant did not pay the interest correctly and in full as agreed, Ms. Le Bich Ph. went to the Bac Lieu City Land Registration Office Branch to complete the name change procedure and discovered that the red book had signs of forgery.

After the incident was discovered, Trieu Dai Hung fled, went to work in Ho Chi Minh City, went to Cambodia, then returned to Dong Nai and was arrested according to the wanted decision of the Investigation Police Agency of Bac Lieu Province Police.

The People's Procuracy of Bac Lieu province prosecuted defendant Trieu Dai Hung for two crimes: Fraudulent appropriation of property and use of fake documents of an agency, as prescribed in Point a, Clause 4, Article 174 and Point b, Clause 3, Article 341 of the Penal Code.

According to VNA