Stealing company money for casual gamblers, female cashier begged for death penalty

On April 27, the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City opened a first-instance trial for defendant Trinh Huu Tu Tran (42 years old, living in Hoc Mon district, Ho Chi Minh City) on the charge of “embezzlement of property”.

According to the indictment, in 2009, Tran joined the office of Anh Thai Duong Co., Ltd. (in District 12, Ho Chi Minh City) with the main task of being an office worker, translating Japanese and translating documents. By 2017, Tran was assigned to be the company’s treasurer with the task of collecting and spending cash, managing safes and monitoring customer debts, collecting and paying cash through the company’s bank account.

In addition, Tran holds cash funds of 6 other companies, which are regular partners in coordination with Anh Thai Duong Co., Ltd. to train labor skills and supply them to Japan.

At the same time, Tran had a love relationship with Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung (American nationality). By 2020, Mr. Tung will return to Vietnam to live with Tran.

Because Mr. Tung is passionate about gambling and then owes debt, Tran often takes money from Anh Thai Duong Co., Ltd. and gives it to Mr. Tung to repay the debt. Each time, Tran brought in from a few tens of millions to about 100 million dong.

Tran knows that the company does not check the monthly cash fund, so it should fully report the amount of revenue and expenditure, the balance of funds in accordance with the books and documents. Thanks to that, Tran has advantages over management.

By this trick, the female cashier withdrew money from the account, the company’s safe as well as the partner’s cash fund. In total, Tran appropriated more than 3 billion VND and 34 million Japanese Yen. Almost all of the money appropriated by Tran was given to his lover to repay the debt and for personal use.

By the end of 2020, Tran did not come to work, so the leaders of Anh Thai Duong Co., Ltd. checked the bank accounts and safes of the company, and discovered that the female cashier had withdrawn a large amount of money.

Although Tran confessed to appropriating the company’s money to give Mr. Tung to repay the debt, Mr. Tung insisted that he did not know that the work was illegal, nor did he use the money that Tran appropriated from the company.

At the trial, defendant Tran admitted to committing the offence, as charged, and repeatedly asked the jury to pronounce him the death sentence and wished for immediate execution.

Considering that the accused’s criminal acts are especially dangerous to society and cause social disorder, it must be strictly handled for deterrence and general prevention. After considering, the trial panel sentenced defendant Trinh Huu Tu Tran to 20 years in prison.

Thanh Phuong