The actions of Dinh Thi Lieu, 53 years old; Tran Thi Dung, 62 years old, with two prior convictions for fraud; and Ta Minh Tung, 54 years old, were detailed in the indictment recently issued by the People's Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City (VKSND TP HCM). They face charges of abusing trust to appropriate property.
According to the indictment, the defendants were involved in renting two cars from Mr. Phuong, the owner of a tourism car rental business in the former Go Vap District, and then selling them to other individuals. Tung was asked to impersonate the car owner to facilitate these transactions.
From 24-27/4/2013, Lieu rented two cars from Mr. Phuong for one month at a cost of 20 million VND.
Owing Dung 3,000 USD, Lieu gave one 7-seater car to Dung for use. Later, Dung called Tung, who was an acquaintance of both Lieu and Dung, and asked him to impersonate the car owner. Their plan was to find someone to accept the car as collateral.
However, the group instead sold the car to another person for 200 million VND. On 20/7/2013, the individual using the car caused an accident, leading to the vehicle's temporary seizure.
Lieu informed Dung that she had purchased the second car from someone else and was short on money, asking Dung to find someone to accept it as collateral, with the intention of redeeming it later. Lieu claimed that if the true owner appeared during the transaction, her business might be affected, so she again asked Dung to have Tung impersonate the owner.
On 2/5/2013, through an introduction, the group sold the second car for 270 million VND.
On 6/8/2013, Mr. Phuong used a GPS device to locate his car. Upon finding and meeting the person using it, he discovered his car had been sold and reported the incident to the police.
After committing the crimes, Lieu and Tung fled. They were eventually arrested in 2022 and 2023 under wanted warrants. The defendants were also involved in using forged documents and seals of organizations, but the investigation agency did not pursue criminal charges due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for that offense.
Binh Nguyen
* Victim's name has been changed
