The appeal court of the Supreme People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City has sentenced a former banking employee to eight years in prison for appropriating over US$100,000 from his bank by switching votive money for true ones. 27-year-old Nguyen Phi Vu, who had worked for a Shinhan Vina Bank branch in Binh Duong Province’s Di An Town, was charged for swindling to appropriate assets. This sentence is two years less than the 10-year sentence previously handed down to Vu by the provincial People’s Court at his first instance hearing, after which he appealed for a commutation. In mid-2010 Vu bought a large amount of votive banknotes, which are usually burned as offerings (e.g for dead people) in ceremonies, and then used them as substitutes for a number of real banknotes that he received from clients. After the substitution, he tied and sealed the money, including votive banknotes, into bundles and submitted them to the bank’s cashier. His fraudulent act was discovered on August 5, 2011, when the cashier discovered the money he submitted was VND90 million less than required. The submitted money was examined carefully and fake banknotes were spotted. The bank checked all the money previously submitted by Vu and found out that he had appropriated a total of more than VND1.8 billion ($86,400) through the trick. The votive banknotes had values of VND500,000 and VND100,000. Vu fled after his act was discovered, but was seized later. Vu was also found to appropriate an additional amount of over VND220 million by falsely reporting torn banknotes at a volume that was higher than the actual amount. Vu’s family later returned all the money – around $100,000 – he had appropriated.