Cedar Rapids man accused of scamming deacon out of over $25,000

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Monday on charges that he scammed multiple people, including a deacon from St. Matthew Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids and his wife, out of thousands of dollars with a story about needing to settle family affairs in Vietnam.

Ky Duong Vinh, 51, is charged with first-degree theft and second-degree theft. He’s being held in the Linn County Correctional Center on multiple cash-only bonds totaling $50,000.

According to a criminal complaint, Vinh approached Deacon Richard Wallace at St. Matthew last June. Vinh told Wallace about supposed family affairs he needed to settle in Vietnam, including paying taxes and attorney fees to close on a house that he said he inherited from his recently deceased parents, and paying taxes and a mortgage related to that house.

Wallace gave Vinh more than $25,000 in cash and wire transfers between June 24 and Aug. 22. A couple hundred dollars came from the church’s funds that are meant to be used for social concerns, but the rest of the money came from Wallace’s own pocket, according to Wallace.

Between Sept. 21 and Oct. 11, Vinh received between $1,500 and $10,000 from a separate Cedar Rapids woman, Kay Jahnel, by telling her a similar story, according to a different criminal complaint.

“The defendant would claim that if (Jahnel) gave him money, it would release more money coming to him and he could pay her right back, but he did not pay her back and requested more money from her, indicating an immediate need for the money to put pressure on her to give him the money,” the complaint states.

Wallace gave Vinh a ride to a bus stop at one point, where Vinh said he would be taking a bus to Chicago to catch a flight to Vietnam. Vinh’s cellphone records showed that he never left Iowa, though he had texted Wallace claiming to be in different parts of the world, according to criminal complaints.

“Honestly, he was pretty good at selling (my wife and me) on the idea, so we continued to think that it was a legitimate situation,” Wallace said. “At one point he showed us a picture of the house that was over there, and the phone number and such of attorneys, and a person in Chicago who was helping him out. So, he continued to legitimize it with little tidbits of information along the way.”

Vinh kept telling Wallace he would pay back the money after he sold the house, but after a while Wallace and his wife started to get suspicious.

“All along he kept saying, ‘Well, if we just get this one more thing taken care of, pay this lawyer bill or pay the back taxes,’ or ‘If I go over there and sign the papers, then I’ll have all your money back for you,’” Wallace said.

Eventually, Wallace’s wife started doing some research about Vinh online and found information about a similar scam he pulled in 2011, which he was convicted of in 2015. This revelation led the couple to go to the police.

According to a Gazette article from May 8, 2011, Vinh told several Linn County churches that he needed financial assistance for his mother’s funeral and other fabricated family matters. He conned the churches out of more than $10,000 in that case.

“I’ve got a soft heart, you might say,” Wallace said. “I just hope the word gets out so that no other churches end up in the same kind of situation. Or frankly, I should say so no other individuals end up in the same situation, who would be folks who would typically have a big heart and want to help people out.”

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