2 O.C. Men Convicted, Sentenced in Vietnam

Two Orange County residents visiting Vietnam last year were convicted this week by a Vietnamese court of laundering money by using fraudulent credit cards, officials said Tuesday.

Le Cong Dang, 36, of Placentia was sentenced to 12 years in a Vietnamese prison. Vuong Vi Cam, 35, of Westminster was sentenced to 10 years.

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court found both men guilty Saturday of obtaining Vietnamese currency with fraudulent credit cards, U.S. State Department officials said.

Dang and Vuong, who were visiting family in Vietnam in February 1995, were accused of using a Visa card and a MasterCard with other names to obtain $12,000 in cash from a Ho Chi Minh City bank.

A defense attorney contended the credit cards were valid and that U.S. banks honored them by transferring the money to the Vietnamese bank.

“I think the guilty verdict is not right,” said Dang’s attorney, Pham Thanh Kong, from his Ho Chi Minh City office.

“They didn’t use anything fake and this has to be made clear.”

After their arrests, Dang and Cam returned the cash they obtained on the cards, he said.

Kong was unable to explain why the two used cards were not in the two men’s own names. They plan to appeal, he added.

The court did not accuse them of stealing the credit cards. Instead, the men were charged with using counterfeit money because Vietnamese laws do not include credit card violations.

Dang has been jailed since March 15, 1995, shortly after obtaining the money. Cam was said to have a heart ailment and was taken to jail only after the verdict. The relationship between the two men remained unclear.

The U.S. Embassy on Tuesday could not verify Cam’s citizenship. Kong said Dang, a U.S. citizen, worked in a law office in the U.S., while Cam was studying law.

Vietnam often disputes the nationality of emigres, saying they remain Vietnamese citizens unless they take legal steps in Vietnam to cancel their citizenship. It was unknown Tuesday whether Dang and Cam were born in Vietnam or in the U.S.

Another Vietnamese American was sentenced in 1994 to 12 years in prison after being convicted of fraud, and one is serving an 18-year term for smuggling gold and clothes into Vietnam.

A total of 11 Americans are in Vietnamese jails on various charges, most of them of Vietnamese origin, U.S. officials said.

The Associated Press and Times staff writer Tina Nguyen contributed to this report.