Suspect arrested for throwing foul substances at debtor's house.

On July 4th, the Ha Dong District Police (Hanoi) announced that they have initiated a criminal case, charged and temporarily detained Pham Manh Hung (born in 1990, residing in Mo Lao Ward) for the crime of "Extortion" and "Usurious lending in civil transactions"

Previously, on June 28th, the Ha Dong District Police received a report from Ms. Vu (born in 1966, residing in Van Phuc Ward) regarding her house being vandalized with foul substances. This woman owed 500 million VND to a "criminal element".

The police also determined that the incident showed signs of usurious lending and throwing foul substances to collect debts, so they investigated and arrested Pham Manh Hung.

At the police station, Hung confessed to lending money at exorbitant interest rates since the end of 2023 in the form of "daily interest loans" and "loan sharking" with interest rates ranging from 146% to 365% per year.

Hung doesn't run a shop; he relies on referrals. When a customer contacts him, he meets with them to assess their ability to repay the loan before lending them money.

Hung required customers to write promissory notes and kept some of their personal documents as collateral. When customers failed to pay as agreed, Hung would call, text threatening messages, and throw foul substances at their houses to force payment.

In Ms. Vu's case, needing money for personal matters, she contacted Hung through a friend's introduction to borrow money at daily interest rates.

Ms. Vu borrowed money six times, totaling 500 million VND, with interest rates of 8,000-10,000 VND per 1 million VND per day (292-365% per year), and agreed to pay interest every 10 days. Ms. Vu has paid a total of 443 million VND in interest, but has not repaid the principal. Afterward, Ms. Vu was late in repaying the debt, so Hung sent her abusive and threatening messages and threw foul substances at her house four times.