Final article: Authorities are indifferent.
With a two-story house at the intersection of Nong Market and the assets he currently possesses, many people still believe...One day, Nguyen Ba Hoan would return the money. But in 2009, Nguyen Ba Hoan fled to the South. Thanks to relatives doing business and living in the South, the people of Thanh Phong commune learned that Nguyen Ba Hoan was currently living in Krong Nang town, Krong Nang district (Dak Lak). With the money he embezzled, Nguyen Ba Hoan bought a coffee plantation in Dak Lak and arranged for his son, Nguyen Ba Hung, to work abroad in South Korea. Back home, neighbors occasionally see Mrs. Nguyen Thi Te, Mr. Hoan's wife, carrying her grandchild and chatting idly in the neighborhood. Next to the two-story house where his wife lives is the house of his eldest son and his wife, who run a general store. The prosperity of Mr. Hoan's family members is a stark contrast to the hardship of the farmers in Thanh Phong commune.
People are outraged because Mr. Nguyen Ba Hoan's spacious house was built with embezzled money.
Outraged, on October 15, 2011, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Lieu and several other residents of Thanh Phong commune gathered evidence and filed a complaint against Nguyen Ba Hoan for fraudulent activities with the relevant authorities. According to Mr. Lieu, several other people had previously filed complaints with the authorities but received no response!
According to Mr. Lieu, there are still over 50 more victims whose money was stolen by Mr. Hoan, but because they are poor farmers and lack knowledge of the law, they have to silently let their hard-earned money slip away.
Explaining why they only filed the complaint recently, the victims all said that, given their current assets and Mr. Hoan's promises, many had waited patiently.
On the morning of December 23rd, Lieutenant Colonel Trinh Thanh Long, Deputy Head of the Thanh Chuong District Police, stated: "We have received a complaint against Mr. Nguyen Ba Hoan (residing in Hamlet 5B, Thanh Phong Commune, Thanh Chuong District) for the act of 'borrowing money from citizens and failing to repay it.' The Thanh Chuong District Police have planned to investigate and clarify this matter. However, the road to Thanh Phong Commune is difficult to access, and the force of the Economic, Narcotics, and Environmental Crime Investigation Team (the team assigned to investigate this case) is too small, so we haven't been able to verify and clarify the matter yet."
In Thanh Phong commune, the Secretary and Chairman of the People's Committee, Nguyen Van Ngoc, stated that previously, some residents had come to the commune office to report this matter. They had summoned Mr. Hoan twice for discussions, and he promised to return the money. Mr. Ngoc also claimed that there were many other cases of people being deceived by Mr. Hoan but not yet reporting him because they still believed his promises. Mr. Trinh Xuan Thi (Head of Thanh Phong Commune Police from 2004-2011), now Vice Chairman of the Thanh Phong Commune People's Council, said: "I have already reported this matter to the Thanh Chuong District Police before!"
When asked when Mr. Nguyen Ba Hoan left the area, Mr. Ngoc and Mr. Thi both said they didn't know and that asking Mr. Lieu (the person who filed the complaint) would clarify the matter. They also stated that the incident wasn't serious, as the amount of money Mr. Hoan embezzled from each person wasn't very large. Mr. Ngoc and Mr. Thi also affirmed that the Thanh Chuong District Police had never come to Thanh Phong commune to investigate this case. Only on the morning of December 23, 2011, did Mr. Long (Deputy Chief of Thanh Chuong District Police) call to ask Mr. Nguyen Ba Hoan which hamlet he lived in and his year of birth. Public opinion suspects that the negligence of the authorities "paved the way for the deer to escape," leaving the victims with nowhere to turn for help in recovering their debts.
I believe that the authorities in Thanh Chuong need to promptly investigate and clarify the fraudulent activities and misappropriation of property by Mr. Nguyen Ba Hoan, in order to return the hard-earned money of the poor people in Thanh Phong commune.
Duc Chuyen-Dam Phuong
