Lying about having a child with ex-lover to swindle 2.2 billion VND

On December 8, defendant Loan, 30 years old, residing in Hoai Duc district, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Hanoi People's Court for the crime ofFraudo appropriation of property, forcing the victim to return the amount of money appropriated.

The defendant was released on bail because she is raising a child under 36 months old. Loan was previously administratively fined by Son La City police for theft in April 2011.

According to the indictment, in early 2017, Loan had a relationship with Thanh, 37 years old, residing in Chuong My district. By the end of the year, Loan also met Tien, 33 years old, residing in Hung Yen province and maintained relationships with both men.

In May 2020, Loan married Mr. Tien. In July of the same year, after the in vitro fertilization process, Loan became pregnant with Mr. Tien, her current husband. However, in order to have money to invest in cryptocurrencies, Loan hid the fact that she was married, reconnected with her ex-lover, and said that she was pregnant with him, but due to Covid-19, she could not meet him in person to tell him the news. Loan gave the reason that her family did not agree, so she could not marry Mr. Thanh with the purpose of him having to take responsibility for "child support".

In February 2021, Loan gave birth to a son. The prosecutor accused Loan of making a fake birth certificate to gain her ex-lover's trust, naming the child after him and sending it to him via Zalo. In fact, the boy had Loan's husband's last name.

Because the child was often sick, in January 2022, Loan took the child to her ex-boyfriend's house to inform his family that the child was "blood related". Loan said that the child had many illnesses and needed money for treatment, then took him back. From then until June of the same year, Loan repeatedly texted and called Thanh and his family members, asking them to transfer money to Loan.

Loan said that because of Covid-19, only Loan was allowed to go to the hospital to take care of her. To make the information more convincing, Loan forged 2 hospital receipts and sent them to her ex-lover.

Because of trust, Mr. Thanh and his family transferred money into Loan's account 19 times, totaling more than 2.2 billion VND. Immediately after receiving the money, Loan deleted her phone number, canceled Zalo contact, and cut off contact with Mr. Thanh and his family.

After investigating, he found out that Loan was married and had a child with her current husband, so he went to the police to report it.

In court, the defendant Loan stated that he used the fraudulent money to invest in Bitcoin, and could not recover it or remedy the consequences. The victim, who was present, said that he was not married and was deceived because he believed the child was his. He had gone to the hospitals listed on the fake hospital receipts to see his child, but Loan lied that his child was undergoing surgery, was isolated and treated, and could not be seen.