Former LJ Hooker franchisee Judy Nguyen claims she didn’t know of husband’s fraud
A former LJ Hooker franchisee has cried in court and claimed her husband misappropriated millions of dollars of clients’ money without her knowledge, a jury heard on Tuesday.
Law & Order
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A former LJ Hooker franchisee accused of misappropriating millions of dollars of clients’ money says her husband committed the crimes without her knowledge, a jury heard on Tuesday.
Truc Thanh Le Nguyen — also known as Judy Nguyen — wept in the dock on the first day of her trial on Tuesday.
Her lawyer told jurors a cancer diagnosis and the birth of her fourth child had caused her to step back from the couple’s real estate business during the period most of the transactions occurred.
Ms Nguyen pleaded not guilty in the County Court to 31 charges of fraudulently converting to her own use sales deposits received from January 2015 to March 2016.
The deposits, relating to 30 Melbourne home sales, almost half of them in Glen Waverley, were received by her company, JNT Law Investments Pty Ltd. JNT was the trading company for six LJ Hooker franchises.
The jury heard Ms Nguyen’s husband Tri Duc Ngo, also known as Joseph Ngo, pleaded guilty to the charges.
The Crown expects to call 26 witnesses, including vendors and an agent who worked for Ms Nguyen.
Prosecutor John Saunders told the court Ms Nguyen had “focused on sales” while Mr Ngo would “attend to the accounts and manage the offices” for JNT.
But Mr Saunders said that, as JNT’s officer in effective control and the “sole signatory” of the two Westpac accounts used in most of the transactions, Ms Nguyen had “a far greater knowledge of what was going on … than she told investigators”.
Alan Marshall, for Ms Nguyen, told the jury he did not intend to dispute the illegality of the transfers and transactions concerned, just his client’s involvement.
He said Ms Nguyen had had her youngest child in late 2013 and was later diagnosed with cervical cancer.
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Mr Ngo also developed a “serious drug problem” during this period, he said.
Mr Marshall said Ms Nguyen couldn’t put “her whole heart and soul into the business” during that period, and had worked part-time, with a focus on property sales, until early 2016.
“That covers a very large number of the charges that are before you,” he told jurors.
The trial is due to resume on Thursday.