Eleven people were sentenced to jail on Monday in Hanoi for their involvement in a ring that stole land use right certificates by fraud.
Under the guidance of former police officer Vu Quy Lam, they pretended to be land purchasers, took advantage of the seller's lack of attention to swap real land use right certificates with fakes, and then sold the properties.
Hanoi People's Court ruled that the 11 people committed fraud to appropriate properties and forged official seals or documents. Lam has since fled.
The defendants received sentences in the range of one year to 19.6 years, which are reduced sentences given that some are elderly and have returned money to the victims, the court stated. The total loss related to the scam was over VND22 billion ($959,000).
According to the ruling, Lam and his associates used two key deception tactics.
Lam first searched real estate websites for people looking to sell land, then contacted them under a false identity. He requested photos of land use right certificates (red books) from the seller for verification, so he could gather information to create fake equivalents. When the two sides met, and while the seller was distracted, he swapped the real red books with the fakes.
Lam assigned his associates to fake the landowner’s ID card and household residence registration, posed as the landowner, and signed contracts to sell the land using the real red books.
The second trick Lam used was to introduce himself as being able to borrow money from banks at low interest rates using red books as collateral. After the borrower gave Lam their red books, Lam's ring would falsify the landowner's identity papers and transferred their land or mortgaged the red books to borrow bank money for their own use.
Between 2018 and January 2020, 11 individuals and one bank fell victim to the ring.