Prosecution of former official of the Central Emulation and Reward Board for fraud in contributing money to buy land

According to the indictment, Phung Tien Dat was formerly an Office staff member of the Central Emulation and Rewards Committee. Dat was assigned the task of entering electronic data for storage, printing certificates of merit, handling repairs, maintaining, servicing, and operating machines and equipment serving the office work of the Emulation and Rewards Committee.

To have money to spend, Dat often told people that thanks to his position at the Central Emulation and Rewards Committee, Dat had a wide network of connections, could help him find a job, handle administrative procedures, or said he had the qualifications to buy land and houses at preferential prices. Using the above tricks, from December 2020 to February 2021, Dat committed 4 frauds, appropriating a total of nearly 1.8 billion VND from the victims.

Specifically, in 2020, through social relationships, Phung Tien Dat became acquainted with Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim S. (born in 1982, residing in Trung Tu ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi). Dat often went to Ms. S.'s house to ask her to tell his fortune. At the end of December 2020, Dat told Ms. S. that he was working with the leaders to prepare a commendation file for a unit in Quang Ninh province, so he was thanked by being allowed to buy a plot of land in Quang Ninh at a preferential price of 850 million VND.

The leader invited Dat to pool money to buy and then sell for profit. Dat told Ms. S. that he did not have money, but was building a relationship with the leader. If he did not join the leader in buying this land, he would not have the opportunity to do other things later. Therefore, Dat invited Ms. S. to contribute half of the investment of 425 million VND to buy the land together. Dat promised that only one month later, the land selling unit would help Dat's leader sell the land for profit.

Because she trusted Dat, Ms. S. agreed to transfer money to Dat. After receiving the money, Dat withdrew it all for personal expenses. After that, Dat said he needed money to complete the procedures to buy the land, so Dat asked Ms. S. to give him more money. Ms. S. gave Dat another 90 million VND in cash. The total amount of money Dat received from Ms. S. was 515 million VND.

After a month, Dat had not returned the money, so Ms. S. asked, and Dat gave the reason that due to the impact of Covid-19, the Central Emulation and Reward Board had not yet completed the certificate of merit for the unit, so the unit had not been able to sell the above land plot to Dat's leader. Ms. S. suspected that Dat was lying, so she asked Dat to clarify the matter of buying the land. Dat admitted that he had lied to Ms. S. about contributing money to buy the land and promised to return the money after a month. After the above deadline, Dat could not return the money, so Ms. S. sent a complaint to the Investigation Agency.

Similar to the above trick, Dat also defrauded and appropriated 529 million VND from Ms. Bui Thi Th. (born in 1987, in Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi) to promise to let Ms. Th. contribute money to buy land plot No. 34, Brigade 99 housing area, Army Corps 12, Rang Sau street, Thanh Thuy commune, Thanh Oai district, Hanoi. In addition, from February 3, 2021 to February 22, 2021, Dat received and appropriated 250 million VND from Ms. Th. to apply for her brother-in-law to transfer his job from Nghe An province to Hanoi.

On February 23, 2021, Dat received and appropriated VND 250 million from Ms. Pham Anh Ph. to make a Certificate of land use rights for 2 plots and a construction permit for house number 165, Tay Son street, Quang Trung ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi. After receiving the money, Dat did nothing to help Ms. Ph. but used all the money for personal expenses.

Then, from February 21, 2021 to February 26, 2021, Dat received and appropriated a total of VND 250 million from Ms. Nguyen Quynh N. to help Ms. N. make a Land Use Rights Certificate. After receiving Ms. N.'s money, Dat used it all for personal expenses.

According to VNA