California IN BRIEF : ORANGE COUNTY : 2 Convicted of Fraud in Vietnam

Two Orange County residents 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 in other people’s names to obtain $12,000 in cash from a Ho Chi Minh City bank. A defense attorney contended that 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.” They plan to appeal, he added.