What is the Extent of Real Estate Tycoon Nguyen Thi Cam Hong’s Fraud?

Trial Summons 967 Victims

On August 1, the Tay Ninh Provincial Police informed that, yesterday afternoon, the Tay Ninh Provincial People’s Court sentenced the defendants Nguyen Thi Cam Hong (54 years old) to life imprisonment for “Fraudulent appropriation of property”; Nguyen Phu Thuan (Hong’s husband); Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong (Hong’s sister, both 49 years old) were sentenced to 20 years in prison; Truong Quoc Thai (49 years old) was sentenced to 7 years in prison for the same crime.

At the same time, the defendants are also responsible for refunding the money they appropriated from the victims in this case.

Previously, from July 28 to 30, the Tay Ninh Provincial People’s Court opened a first-instance trial of four defendants in a large-scale fraud case involving three real estate projects in Duc Hoa district, Long An province (formerly), including: Dat Xanh Long An, Hung Thinh Cat Tuong and Thien Phuc Hoang Gia.

The trial received special attention from the public due to the large number of victims and related people.

The court summoned 967 victims, 41 people with rights, obligations and other related participants.

At the trial, the defendant Nguyen Thi Cam Hong was identified as the mastermind, who did not cooperate and caused difficulties during the investigation, prosecution and trial processes. However, with the collected documents and evidence, there was sufficient basis to conclude that she was the ringleader, causing especially serious consequences.

The total amount of fraud reached VND 487 billion

According to the indictment, Nguyen Thi Cam Hong worked as a self-employed real estate businesswoman. She established multiple companies with other people as nominal owners, including Thien Phuc Real Estate Investment Joint Stock Company, Hung Thinh Company, and Dat Xanh Long An One-Member Limited Liability Real Estate Company.

At Thien Phuc Real Estate Investment Joint Stock Company, defendant Hong appointed her husband, Nguyen Phu Thuan, as director to create a legal facade for non-existent projects.

The defendant hired someone to establish a detailed plan for a 1/500 scale project, self-promoted information about land lot and kiosk projects in the market, and then signed contracts with real estate exchanges to transfer them to customers.

To raise investment capital for the project, Hong herself provided information about the projects, such as location, size, number of land lots or kiosks, and signed contracts with real estate exchanges to introduce them to customers who wanted to invest in the projects, in the form of signing a contract in principle for the transfer of land use rights for each land lot or kiosk.

Customers paid in multiple installments, with the first payment made directly to the real estate exchange, and subsequent payments made directly to Hong or transferred to the account of the company that was the project investor.

Defendant Hong directly managed the money that people paid for the land lots or kiosks and instructed Thuan and Thai to transfer or withdraw the money and hand it over to her for management and use.

Defendant Phuong, representing Hung Thinh and Thien Phuc, signed 590 real estate purchase contracts, collecting nearly VND 210 billion. The rest were signed by Hong herself or by employees under her instruction to forge signatures. Thai and Thuan played an active role in transferring and withdrawing money from customers and then handing it over to Hong.