Prosecution of Pham Thi Le Thanh for defrauding many people from Hai Duong who wanted to export labor, appropriating nearly 6 billion VND

The investigation results determined that Thanh was a freelance worker, did not sign a labor supply contract, and was not authorized by an agency, organization, or individual with the function and task of recruiting Vietnamese people to work in Korea.

Due to needing money for personal expenses, from June to November 2022, Thanh gave false information to many people about his ability to send workers to work in Korea under the short-term E8 (1 year and 10 months) and long-term E9 (4 years and 10 months) visas.

Thanh rented a house at 70B Hai Ba Trung Street, Quang Trung Ward (Hai Duong City) as a place to consult, receive documents and money from workers and committed that on December 26 and 27, 2022, workers would fly to Korea to work.

Thanh agreed that each person who successfully goes to Korea to work will have to pay from 100 to 250 million VND, with a deposit of 35 to 50 million VND/person. Those who introduce workers to Thanh will be paid 4 million VND/person after the workers leave the country.

With the above trick, from June to November 2022, Thanh appropriated 5 billion 789 million VND from 50 people who processed procedures for 79 workers, many of whom were in Hai Duong. Of these, Thanh directly appropriated 3 billion 758 million VND from 67 workers; appropriated 2 billion 031 million VND from intermediaries. In addition, from October 13, 2022 to November 6, 2022, Thanh provided false information about needing money to buy plane tickets and process procedures for workers to go to Korea to appropriate 170 million VND from another person. The total amount Thanh appropriated was 5 billion 959 million VND.

Thanh used 60 million VND of the embezzled money to buy plane tickets for 10 people and returned 213 million VND to 3 workers. Thanh also used the money to pay off previous loans, for personal expenses, and then changed his phone number and cut off contact with the victims.

After the victims reported, on March 5, 2023, Thanh turned himself in to the Provincial Police Investigation Agency and confessed to his crime. Thanh was prosecuted for fraud and appropriation of property as prescribed in Point a, Clause 4, Article 174 of the Penal Code, with a prison sentence of 12-20 years or life imprisonment.