A 45-year-old Nigerian man and three Vietnamese women
were on Thursday, December 14, sentenced to jail by a court
in Can Tho City in southern Vietnam for duping people
including 40 women around the country out of more than
VND20 billion ($900,000)
Micheal Ikechukwu Leonard and his gang duped nearly 40
women into paying customs fees for non-existent expensive
gifts from overseas.
Leonard received 18 years in prison, while Huynh Ha Binh,
Huynh Ha Uyen and Nguyen Tran Quynh Nhi, all from Ho
Chi Minh City, got between 12 to 15 years each.
According to the indictment, Leonard and Binh, 27, started
living together in August 2014 in Ho Chi Minh City before
moving to Cambodia and opening a fashion shop.
While in Cambodia, the duo hatched a plan to con rich
Vietnamese women via the social media. Facebook’s
Messenger and Zalo are the two most popular chat apps in
Vietnam.
The Nigerian man used fake accounts and described himself
as a rich man or even a U.S. Army officer who had just gone
through a divorce and was “lonely.”
He approached wealthy women and tried to build a
relationship with them, and as many as 37 fell for the trick.
To gain their trust, Leonard told the women he would send
them valuable gifts such as laptops, cellphones, jewelry and
cosmetics from the U.S.
When the women were sucked in, Binh, Uyen and Nhi
pretended to be Vietnamese customs officers and contacted
the women, telling them that packages sent to them
contained expensive goods or large amounts of foreign
currency, so the women would have to pay a customs fee or
even a fine.
In late March 2016, after the group had conned a woman in
Can Tho City out of VND650 million ($28,500), Leonard and
the other three were arrested.
They all confessed to their crimes in court.
Binh and Leonard have a child together, and the baby is
now with Binh’s parents.
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