Woman jailed for life over $3.5mn fraud in southern Vietnam
Tuesday, March 30, 2021, 23:02 GMT+7
The People’s Court in the southern Vietnamese province of Binh Duong on Monday sentenced a 35-year-old woman to life in prison for fraud and appropriation of more than VND81 billion (US$3.5 million).
Truong Thi Cao Thao, who resides in Thu Dau Mot City, had taken advantage of her relationships with a lot of people to trick them and appropriate their money, according to the indictment.
Thao told them she was running a highly profitable business and asked for their investment to expand it.
However, the woman did not spend the funds on any business operations, but instead used the money of her new investors to pay interest and debts to existing creditors.
From July 2018 to August 2019, Thao received more than VND152 billion ($6.5 million) from 11 victims.
She spent about VND71 billion ($3 million) paying interest and principals, and kept the remaining VND81 billion ($3.5 million) for personal use.
In order to win the trust of her victims, Thao promised they would be paid with an interest rate of between 35 percent per 30 days and 35 percent per three days.
Aside from the life sentence, she was required to pay the victims more than VND98 billion ($4.2 million) as compensation.
Thao was also accused of appropriating over VND65.8 million ($2.8 million) from seven other individuals, but there was no sufficient evidence to back this charge.
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