A Vietnamese-American realtor who was sentenced to life for a major real estate fraud involving the sale of mortgaged apartments, leading to the embezzlement of over $12 million and I could already hear some people say “see, I told you so, you should not get the Vietnam Passport!” – and then I delved deeper into the case to find out what went wrong, as it is unusual to get life sentence for minor to medium fraud cases in Western countries.

We have always considered that getting a second or third citizenship is part of a global strategy helping you to live and work where you want and, when you want getting the full benefits of local residents. That is a mindful strategy if you don’t want to stay in one particular country for the rest of your life. What is less mindful, however, is to think that having a so-called “powerful” passport such as the US passport is sufficient to bypass the system because your country will protect you no matter what, even if you have broken the law in another country.