Bank employee sentenced to life imprisonment for setting up a "debt scam" and defrauding 47 billion VND.

Falling into a trap because they trusted their superiors.

Nguyen Thi Kieu Nga (born in 1984) was born into a well-educated family in Ha Huy Tap ward, Vinh City (Nghe An province). Graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics with honors and possessing an attractive appearance, Kieu Nga was recruited by a large and reputable bank in the area.

Having started working in 2006, through her efforts, Nga was appointed deputy head of the retail customer management department at a branch of a major bank in Nghe An. In this position, Nga should have strived to apply what she had learned, but instead, taking advantage of the trust and affection she received from many people, Nguyen Thi Kieu Nga manipulated a series of loan applications for profit.

The first scams carried out by Nguyen Thi Kieu Nga occurred in 2022. The first group of victims Nga targeted were none other than her former colleagues.

In late December 2022, Nga learned that Ms. MHD (residing in Vinh Tan ward, Vinh City), a former subordinate of hers, had recently sold land and therefore had a large sum of money available. To borrow 7 billion VND, Nga used the excuse of needing to prove financial stability and confirm the balance for a company registered under her husband's name.

Trusting her superior, Ms. D. gave all the money from selling her land to her boss. Not only that, Ms. D. also borrowed money from friends and relatives and transferred it to the bank account that Nga had designated. The money, supposedly to demonstrate the company's financial stability, was instead used by Nga to pay off her personal debts.

Seeing that her "fraudulent" activities were going well, Nga then tried to approach Ms. NTA (residing in Hung Dung ward, Vinh City), who had also previously worked in Nga's department. Besides their professional relationship, Nga and Ms. A. had a close relationship due to their families and parents. Nga knew that Ms. A.'s husband and father-in-law had previously borrowed money and had collateral at the bank, so she fabricated a story about "loan restructuring" and extending the loan terms to avoid impacting the department's targets.

Trusting Kieu Nga's words, Ms. A. persuaded her father-in-law to sign loan documents for 7 billion VND, and her husband to borrow an additional 9.5 billion VND. However, only when the money was nowhere to be seen and the loan repayment deadline arrived did Ms. A. realize she had fallen into a "loan shark" trap. In total, Nga embezzled 16.5 billion VND from Ms. A.'s family – who considered Nga a close family member.

Four victims were scammed out of 47 billion VND.

Not stopping within the agency, Nga continued to expand her "fraudulent scheme" to include her own customers. At that time, Nga was still serving as the deputy head of the retail customer management department, so she knew many customers. Among them was Ms. DTTL (residing in Hung Phuc ward, Vinh City), a regular customer who borrowed and deposited money at the bank.

In 2022, Nga repeatedly called and texted Ms. L., borrowing money under the pretext of refinancing bank loans for clients, promising interest rates as high as 1,500 VND per million VND per day. Trusting Nga's professional position and long-standing relationship, Ms. L. agreed, hoping for some extra profit. To build credibility, Nga repaid the initial loans fully and on time, reassuring Ms. L.

However, from mid-December 2022 to January 2023, when she had many debts to repay, Nga continued to borrow money from Ms. L. under the same pretext, but instead of using it to "refinance" as she had claimed, she used it to pay off personal debts. After repeated urging, Nga only repaid Ms. L. 3 billion VND, while the remaining 24 billion VND was used for personal purposes. Noticing Nga's suspicious financial behavior and her repeated excuses to delay repayment, Ms. L. filed a complaint with the authorities.

Based on complaints containing sufficient evidence, Nguyen Thi Kieu Nga was arrested by the police on August 2, 2023.detentionto investigate the act of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

According to initial statements from the former deputy head of customer management, in 2022 she invested in a business but suffered losses, leading to debt. Because some debts were due, Nga came up with the idea of ​​borrowing money from one person to pay another.

According to initial investigations, between December 2022 and July 2023, Nguyen Thi Kieu Nga defrauded four victims of a total of over 47 billion VND. The largest amount lost by one victim was 24 billion VND.

When trust is misplaced.

Nearly two years have passed since Ms. MHD filed a complaint against Nguyen Thi Kieu Nga with the authorities, but she has only received a meager 200 million VND. It is known that the 7 billion VND that Ms. D. transferred to Nga was not only the entire amount from the sale of her family's land but also included savings from a relative. Ms. D. invested all her assets simply because she trusted her colleague and superior for many years. "Now I just hope to get back some of it to repay my relative. Because of misplaced trust, my family is now in debt," Ms. D. shared.

The trial of defendant Nguyen Thi Kieu Nga was held at the end of April 2025. At the trial, the defendant bowed her head and admitted to all her actions. When questioned by the panel of judges about the amount of money she had embezzled, Nga stated that she had invested in "speculative" real estate in Phu Quoc and been defrauded of tens of billions of dong, which led her to devise a plan to create fraudulent loan applications to embezzle funds. However, she had no documents to prove the investment process. Before the panel of judges, Nga apologized to the victims and her former workplace, where she had been entrusted with important responsibilities.

During the investigation, Nguyen Thi Kieu Nga stated that she had previously visited the Nghe An Psychiatric Hospital for examination. However, the assessment concluded that Nga suffered from mild depression but was capable of understanding and controlling her behavior.

The court sentenced Nguyen Thi Kieu Nga to life imprisonment for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property"In addition, the court ordered the defendant to return the entire amount of money that had been embezzled."