Woman swindles $90,800 from lover via paternity lie

Nguyen Thi Loan, 30, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Hanoi People’s Court on Friday for “obtaining property by fraud.”

Loan is currently out on bail as she is raising a small child.

In early 2017, Loan had a romantic relationship with Thanh, 37, who also lives in Hanoi.

By the end of the year, she also began a physical relationship with Tien, 33, who lives in nearby Hung Yen Province.

She maintained relations with both men, and in May 2020, married Tien.

In July the same year, using IVF, Loan became pregnant with her husband Tien.

But in order to secure money for a cryptocurrency investment, Loan hid the fact that she had a husband from Thanh and told him she was pregnant with his child. She told him she couldn’t marry him because her family would not allow it. But she also argued that Thanh was responsible for supporting his child financially.

In February 2021, Loan gave birth to a boy.

Prosecutors accused her of forging a fake birth certificate, with Thanh’s family name as the child’s in order to dupe him.

But in reality, the boy officially carried his biological father’s family name.

The newborn boy suffered a variety of illnesses and in January 2022 Loan brought the boy to Thanh’s house, saying the child required money for treatment. Until June the same year, Loan continued frequently contacting Thanh and his family members, asking them to send money to help her with the boy.

Thanh and his family members sent money into Loan’s account 19 times, totaling over VND2.2 billion in transfers. After receiving the money, Loan discarded her phone number and cut contact with both Thanh and his family.

Thanh later discovered that Loan was married and had a child with her husband, so he reported the matter to the police.

In court at her trial, Loan said she used the money to invest in Bitcoin, and she could not return the money immediately.