A Colorado woman who collected tens of thousands of dollars in charitable donations after falsely claiming her six-year-old son had cancer has been sentenced to five years of probation and 90 nights in jail. Sandy Nguyen, 29, of Aurora, pleaded guilty in September to one count each of charitable fraud and child abuse.
According to court documents, Nguyen convinced her son, family, and the community that the boy had leukaemia and had been receiving treatment since September 2012. She posted detailed updates on Facebook about his purported treatments, including 317 days of chemotherapy and seven days of radiation. The boy was led to believe he was receiving chemotherapy at night while asleep and shaved his head each morning before school.
The scheme unravelled when a doctor at Children's Hospital Colorado became suspicious after overhearing Nguyen claim her son was being treated there. Various fundraisers raised around $25,000 for the family. Police found $23,000 in cash in Nguyen's closet and discovered she had used other money for a family trip to Disneyland.
Prosecutor Jacob Edson said, 'What makes this especially aggravating is that the defendant convinced everyone – including her own child – that he was extremely sick. The child was introduced to the concept of death before he really had a chance to be a kid.' Nguyen was ordered to start serving 90 days of work release in two weeks, working during the day and reporting to jail at night.
