The winner of a 2007 Vietnamese beauty pageant was freed by a court in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday after being detained for more than two years on charges of fraud.

The second-instance trial for Truong Ho Phuong Nga, 30, began Sunday to seek a verdict on her involvement in conning Cao Toan My, a local businessman, of nearly VND16.5 billion (US$727,000) in 2013.

After a five-day hearing, the jury found that the evidence brought by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy was not strong enough to convict Nga.

The court ruled that Nga and Nguyen Duc Thuy Dung, her best friend and the second defendant in the case, be released, and returned the case file to prosecutors for further investigation and the clarification of conflicting details presented during the five-day trial.

Nga, however, is banned from leaving her place of residence.

Truong Ho Phuong Nga (pink shirt) and Nguyen Duc Thuy Dung react after hearing their release

Beauty and the magnate

The lawsuit picked up media traction after it became clear that Nga had once been crowned a beauty queen while My is an affluent tech magnate.

Nga’s pageant win came at a Vietnamese beauty competition in Moscow in 2007, two years before she met My via social media in 2009.  Shortly after becoming acquainted, the couple began a romantic relationship.

In 2012, My and Nga agreed that the beauty queen would buy houses at cheap prices on behalf of the businessman and flip the properties for profit.

By November 2013, My had transferred a total of VND16.5 billion to Nga, expecting her to buy houses at below the market prices. Though Nga received the money, she failed to make a single purchase.

In April 2014, My denounced Nga for “defaulting on the VND16.5 billion loan” he had given her, though police classified the case as a civil issue and legal proceedings were never entered.

My continued denouncing Nga in August 2014 for swindling his money with her ‘cheap house buying plot’.

On September 9, 2014, My entered a testimony detailing his relationship with Nga and explaining her role in swindling his money. Twenty days later, Nga admitted that she had, in fact, conned My.

On November 19, 2014, police officially probed the case.  On March 19, 2015, authorities gathered enough evidence to take Nga and Dung, the beauty queen’s accomplice, into custody.

Truong Ho Phuong Nga

Nga and Dung stood for their first-instance trial in Ho Chi Minh City on September 21, 2016. At that time, despite submitting previous testimony admitting the fraud, Nga told the court that the VND16.5 billion was actually a ‘love contract’ between her and My, who she had since discovered was married.

According to the ‘love contract’, Nga would accept her role as My’s ‘second wife’ and would not force him to divorce his ‘official spouse.’ Meanwhile, Nga claimed the house buying story was actually a cover-up suggested by a woman named Nguyen Mai Phuong.

The court eventually returned the case file to prosecutors to clarify the ‘love contract’.

At the second-instance hearing earlier this week, several related individuals, including Phuong, were summoned to court.

Details need clarification

The second-instance court decided to release Nga and Dung and demanded that the investigation be extended in order to clarify several details which surfaced during the five day hearing, particularly the conflicting testimonies of the defendants, the plaintiff, and the witnesses, according to the jury.

While Nga and Dung reiterated that the money in question was meant to fulfill the ‘love contract,’ My insisted that it was payment for the house purchases.

Cao Toan My leaves the court

The court suggested that the ‘house buying agreement’ might be made-up evidence, thus demanding that prosecutors clarify what the VND16.5 billion sum was really meant for.  If it is made-up evidence, prosecutors should identify the individuals and hold them accountable.

The jury also requested an investigation into whether My had violated any laws on family and marriage, referring to his ‘adultery’ with Nga.

Nga said she had traveled overseas 17 times with My, and stayed in the same hotel room with him on each occasion. The businessman said they never shared a bed during their trips.

Other details in need of clarification include Nga’s accusations that My and investigators had threatened her into making her first ‘confession.’

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