HANOI (Reuters) -- His name is Bond, James Bond Nguyen, but unlike the fictional British spy, Vietnam's namesake has neither the fancy cars, girls nor high life.
Nguyen, an American of Vietnamese origin, is languishing in jail after being charged with swindling a central highland province out of tens of thousands of dollars for a bogus business project.An official at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, when contacted by Reuters, made clear the charged man was not the famous James Bond.
"He is not the 007 secret agent," the court official said, adding Nguyen would face trial in May.
The James Bond wannabe was born Nguyen Van Bon in 1939 in the former Saigon, local media reported Friday, publishing a picture of Nguyen in prison garb.
Nguyen fled to the United States in 1975, around the time the Vietnam War ended, and later changed his name.
The fictional James Bond has previously tangled with Vietnamese authorities. In 1997, the Interior Ministry revoked earlier permission given to make segments of the Bond film, "Tomorrow Never Dies," in Vietnam.
Previous films had portrayed Bond as an anti-communist hero, officials had said.