A Vietnam court on Tuesday sentenced a Nigerian man to 15 years in prison for conning 15 Vietnamese women out of about US$51,700.
Okoye Uchenna, 37, who temporarily resided in Nha Be District, Ho Chi Minh City, was given the sentence on charges of appropriating property through swindling, the HCMC People’s Court said
The court also imposed a 10-year imprisonment sentence on the man’s accomplice, Vo Thi Xuan Hong, a 51-year-old Vietnamese woman of southern Dong Nai Province, for the same offense.
According to the indictment issued by the HCMC People’s Procuracy, Okoye Uchenna and Hong had colluded to carry out swindles targeting Vietnamese women the Nigerian man befriended through the Internet.
The foreigner called himself by different names and used false nationalities in online chatting and getting acquainted with these women.
Uchenna later told his “girlfriends” that he had sent valuable gifts, including laptops, cosmetics and cash, to them via transport companies outside Vietnam.
He said to his potential victims that those companies would contact them to collect fees and charges related to the door-to-door delivery of the goods.
The Nigerian man then discussed with Hong a trick to appropriate their money.
Accordingly, Hong made phone calls to the foreigner’s Vietnamese “girlfriends,” posing as an employee of a foreign transport company that was taking steps to send them the gifts.
Hong asked them to make pre-payment to three accounts at three banks for packing fees, customs charges and other expenses related to shipping the goods to Vietnam.
She also promised them early delivery of the goods.
After receiving payments from their victims, both Hong and Uchenna broke off contact with their victims.
With such a ruse, the Nigerian man and Hong cheated 15 Vietnamese women out of more than VND1.1 billion ($51,700) in total from January 2012 to March 2013.
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Đăng ký: VietNam News