Nguyen Thai Luyen - Chairman of Alibaba Real Estate Joint Stock Company was proposed to be sentenced to life in prison.

On May 15, the trial to consider the appeal of Nguyen Thai Luyen, 36 years old, Chairman of Alibaba Real Estate Joint Stock Company (Alibaba Real Estate) and his wife Vo Thi Thanh Mai (currently on bail) and 13 other accomplices on the charges of fraud and money laundering ended the interrogation.

The representative of the Procuracy stated that Luyen had established 22 companies and then sold fake projects, appropriating more than VND2,466 billion from customers. To commit the crime, the defendant used fraudulent tricks, following a 5-step process: purchasing large quantities of agricultural land in the provinces of Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Binh Thuan; transferring to legal entities he established to establish "ghost" projects; falsely advertising the projects; signing cooperation contracts to distribute the projects and then transferring them to customers.

Defendant Nguyen Thai Luyen took the opportunity to talk with the victims before the trial.

To gain the trust of customers, Luyen promised to buy and lease back the land they had purchased at high interest rates. In fact, the entire land area in the projects was agricultural land that had not been licensed by the authorities. The actions of Luyen and his accomplices had appropriated an exceptionally large amount of money. All of the money was transferred to an account managed by Luyen.

The People's Procuracy assessed that the first instance verdict of life imprisonment for Luyen was commensurate with his actions, so there was no basis to consider a reduction in the sentence.

Regarding defendant Thanh Mai, the People's Procuracy stated that at the appeal court, Mai pledged to return more than 12 billion VND withdrawn from the proceeds of crime, but has not yet done so, so there is no new information. The People's Procuracy requested the court to uphold the first instance judgment, sentencing Mai to 20 years in prison for Fraudulent appropriation of property; 12 years for Money Laundering (a total sentence of 30 years in prison - the highest sentence for a fixed-term prison sentence).

Nguyen Thai Luc, Nguyen Thai Linh (Luyen's younger brother) and 5 other defendants voluntarily paid a sum of money to compensate for the consequences, so the People's Procuracy requested the Trial Panel to reduce their sentences by 1-3 years. As for the remaining defendants, because there were no new mitigating circumstances, the People's Procuracy requested to reject their appeals.

Regarding the appeal of 97 victims and related people, the People's Procuracy proposed that the panel of judges accept an increase in the compensation amount of 31 people, while the remaining people maintain the original first instance judgment.

Representative of the Procuracy holding the right to prosecute in court

According to the first instance verdict, Luyen established 22 subsidiaries, using 12 legal entities as investors in 58 fake real estate projects in Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Binh Thuan provinces to sell to people. Thanh Mai, in addition to helping her husband sell the "ghost" projects, also directed the accounting staff to transfer 13 billion VND of illegal origin into Luc's account and then withdraw it for personal use.

At the end of December 2022, Nguyen Thai Luc was sentenced to 27 years in prison; Nguyen Thai Linh to 17 years in prison; the other defendants received 10-19 years in prison. Defendant Huynh Kim Thang (currently on bail for cancer treatment) was sentenced to 3 years in prison but given a suspended sentence.

The court ordered Luyen and Mai to jointly compensate the entire amount of money they had appropriated from the victim (detailed in appendices I and II of the verdict) - equivalent to 2,400 billion VND. After the first instance trial, Luyen and his wife appealed, claiming their innocence; 16 defendants appealed for a lighter sentence.

However, at the appeal court, Luyen and Mai both changed their appeals to request a reduction in their sentences, while the other three defendants withdrew their requests for a reduction in their sentences.

According to VnExpress