News agency clerk sentenced for fraud

HA NOI – Ha Noi's People Court yesterday sentenced a former clerk in Associated Press's (AP) Ha Noi office, Nguyen Thi Van Huong, 39, to eight years in prison for forging signatures and cheating.

The City People's Procuracy accused Huong of forging signatures on money transfer papers. She is also alleged to changed numbers on 16 signed cheques between 2007-08 to appropriate more than VND7.2 billion (US$343,000).

After her actions were uncovered Huong disappeared but was caught three years later.

Huong told the court that she lost the money on stocks so could not refund all the money. So far she has paid back more than VND2 billion ($95,000).

Besides, she asked her colleagues to take bank loans for several hundreds of millions dong on her behalf. However, she failed to pay the loans.

A representative from the news agency told the court said the office would not force Huong to refund the rest money worth more than VND4.9 billion because she was divorced and had to support two children and old parents.

A graduate from the National Economic University, Huong started work with AP in 2007.– VNS