A Chinese national was sentenced to death in southern Viet Nam Tuesday for trafficking and circulating fake money amounting to billions of dong.
After a two-week hearing, the People’s Court in Tien Giang province slapped the highest sentence on 55-year-old Quach Kim Hoa ( Vietnamese name).
Hoa’s accomplice Mai Van Truc who joined the smuggling ring from the beginning received life sentence while seven other members were handed jail terms of between 23 and 13 years.
Truc was the one in charge of putting two billion dong of forged money in circulation.
Hoa was found orchestrating the trafficking of nearly five billion dong from China into Viet Nam from May 2005 to September 2007.
Specifically, she colluded with 36 people to sneak the fake bills worth VND4.7 billion from Taiwan to Guangxi of China where she hired porters to carry them across the border into Viet Nam’s Lang Son Province.
The counterfeit notes were hidden in VCD players, rice cookers or put in boxes of fresh milk.
Once in Viet Nam, VND100,000 of the fake notes would be exchanged for VND28,000 or less of genuine bills.
Other illegal money traders then sold the fake bills at higher prices in southern provinces like Tien Giang, Long An, Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Ba Ria Vung Tau to make profits.
The case started when Tieng Giang provincial police in June last year caught Le Minh Son, 30, and Nguyen Van Dung, 40,red-handed circulating fake bill notes worth VND400,000. The ring has been since tracked down and busted.
