Pham Van Cung, a former abbot, was sentenced to life in jail on Thursday for fraudulent charity activities and making up a story about being kidnapped, appropriating nearly VND68 billion ($2.96 million) from four businesswomen.
Cung, 40, was declared guilty by the People's Court of Vinh Long province. Nguyen Tuan Si, 54, received three years in jail as an accomplice.
Deducting the money the defendant had repaid the victims and that which they voluntarily gave to charity, the court requested Cung to pay them VND63 billion.
According to the trial panel, Cung is a Buddhist monk, but took advantage of the victims' trust to appropriate property, so a strict sentence is necessary.
In court, Cung admitted to the crime, saying that because he was in debt, he had devised many ways to appropriate benefactors' money to pay and spend. "Even though I have become a monk, I still have normal human features, therefore I defrauded," Cung said.
In court, Cung admitted to the crime, saying that because he was in debt, he had devised many ways to defraud. "Even though I am a monk, I still have normal human traits," Cung said.
Finally, the former abbot admitted he was "a bad person", and asked to receive the death penalty. The defendant also apologized to the victims.
According to the judgment, in 2005, Pham Van Cung was a monk at Phuoc Quang Pagoda in Tam Binh district, Vinh Long province. Cung was later appointed as the abbot of this pagoda and sought permission to build a Buddhist center to raise orphans. At the end of 2012, Cung became the center's director.
Cung organized many events, claiming he had relations with senior leaders in the government; made videos about charity activities at the pagoda and orphanage and posted them on social networks to build trust among his followers.
In 2015, Cung became acquainted with a 50-year-old businesswoman in Ho Chi Minh City through a charity program and then invited her to Vinh Long to visit the pagoda and orphanage. He lied that he owed many billions of dong (VND1 billion = $43,500) for building the pagoda, Buddha statues and the orphanage in order to borrow money from the businesswomon.
Seeing she trusted him, Cung and his assistant, Le Nguyen Khoa, made up a story that he had been kidnapped by his creditor and kept under house arrest in China, to "extort" more money.
In total, he received VND18.6 billion from the woman. When the incident was discovered, he returned part of it, and appropriated VND11.6 billion.
He also received VND13 billion from a 42-year-old female singer, promising to assist in bringing her relatives from the UK to reside lawfully in Vietnam, He failed to do so and appropriated the money.
Relating to the case, Le Nguyen Khoa, 36, has fled and is currently wanted.