The tragedy of more than 100 households when depositing 'savings' at a gold shop in Yen Thanh

The arduous journey of debt collection

For more than half a month now, despite the cold rain, dozens of households have been regularly present in front of the business gate of Mr. Nguyen Vinh Tam's family (54 years old), in Cong Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, hoping to receive their debt. They brought many banners, stretched in front of the store demanding that this business owner return the money. Therefore, the local government has had to regularly dispatch functional forces to ensure security and order, avoiding clashes between the two sides. This is a case that has been going on for many years in this rural area.

Bursting into tears when we asked, Mrs. Vuong Thi Hanh (62 years old), residing in My Thanh commune, said that her family is one of the households with difficult circumstances. Some of her children are married far away, some are in prison. Her husband is in poor health and has difficulty walking. All living expenses in the house depend on her work in the fields catching crabs and snails.

Nearly 10 years ago, seeing neighbors rushing to bring money to deposit with Mr. Nguyen Vinh Tam's family, she also discussed with her husband and then took out all the money she had saved after many years of catching crabs to deposit. "That amount of nearly 40 million VND, although not much, was the entire fortune of my husband and I. Because it was a bit higher than the bank, it was also convenient because we could withdraw it at any time. The procedure was quick and simple, and Mr. Tam and his wife were relatives, so we trusted them and deposited everything there," Ms. Hanh said.

After depositing the money, Ms. Hanh was given a "savings book" printed by the business itself, inside of which was clearly stated the amount of the deposit, the deposit period and the interest rate. However, in 2016, Mr. Nguyen Vinh Tam's family suddenly declared bankruptcy, leaving Ms. Hanh and hundreds of other households in dire straits because they had deposited money but could not get it back. Over the past 8 years, Ms. Hanh and other households have come to see them hundreds of times to demand their money back, but to no avail. The woman with a haggard face said that in recent years, her husband's health has been getting worse and worse, and he has been hospitalized many times for treatment, requiring money. Ms. Hanh had no choice but to bring the "savings book" to see Mr. Tam and his wife to beg for the principal, but what she received in return were insults and challenges from the debtor.

“My husband and I are old and weak, and we need money to go to the hospital, but it’s hard to borrow money anywhere. Meanwhile, Mr. Tam’s family is still doing very well in business and living a comfortable life. I brought my “savings book” to get my money back, but he tore it up,” Ms. Hanh sobbed.

In a similar situation, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh (64 years old), in My Thanh commune, said that she and Mr. Tam's family are close relatives. Seeing the interest rate of 9.6% per year, because of trust, she and her husband also brought all the money in the house here to deposit, in case they were sick and needed to withdraw. At first, she was paid the full interest. However, Mr. Tam and his wife later declared bankruptcy. The amount of money she was depositing there was still 160 million VND. "That was the money my husband and I had to work hard for, for many years we 'didn't dare eat, didn't dare wear'. We are still relatives, I don't understand how they could be so cruel," Ms. Thanh said sadly.

Ms. Thanh said that in the following years, her husband was seriously ill and had to be hospitalized continuously. She went to beg many times but did not receive mercy from Mr. Tam and his wife. “In May 2019, my husband was dying in the hospital, there was no way to borrow money anymore. I went to beg but not only did I not receive mercy and return the money, but I was also cursed and challenged by Mr. Tam and his wife. A few days later, my husband died in frustration. They declared bankruptcy but lived in luxury all day long, while we, the ones who deposited the money, had to endure this situation,” Ms. Thanh added.

Need timely intervention

According to the reporter's investigation, there are more than 100 households that still have money that they sent to Mr. Tam and his wife but have not received it back, with a total amount of nearly 10 billion VND. Most of the victims are farmers, some brought all their assets worth more than 1 billion VND to send, some brought tens of millions of VND. Recently, one of the victims discovered that although Mr. Tam and his wife declared bankruptcy, they still had many assets under their names, including 4 plots of land, so they continued to come to claim it, and at the same time requested the authorities to freeze these assets, preventing the act of dissipation.

“Mr. Tam and I are his children, but we were still deceived. Recently, we discovered that he still had a lot of assets. When we came to ask for them, they continued to challenge us,” said the victim.

Speaking to Nghe An Newspaper reporters, Mr. Nguyen Vinh Tam admitted that he still owes money to these households. “However, I am also a victim of others,” Mr. Tam said.

Mr. Tam said that he used to run a gold and silver shop, so he had a lot of money, so he opened a loan service and received deposits. During this process, he and his wife also joined the hui. However, in 2015, Ms. Pham Thi Thuong (47 years old), residing in Lien Thanh commune, took all of the nearly 20 billion VND in the ward's money and also borrowed nearly 2 billion VND from Mr. Tam and his wife before fleeing their residence. "There are up to 60 people who are borrowing money from us but not paying, up to tens of billions of VND. As for the money that people deposited with us, since the incident until now, we have tried to overcome it, paying back more than 22 billion VND to the people. Now we still owe them about 9 billion VND," Mr. Tam said.

Mr. Tam also said that recently, on January 4, he and his wife filed a complaint against Ms. Pham Thi Thuong for the seventh time to the police for fraud and property appropriation. In the complaint, Mr. Tam's wife said that she was the owner of this hui, but the 10 members who played all borrowed money from her. After that, Ms. Thuong took all the money and ran away, causing her family to fall into a crisis. She did not have money to pay back the people who had deposited their savings, so people came to her house, affecting the family's business. “My family has submitted a petition to the authorities 7 times, but the police have not resolved the matter, causing more than 60 debtors who borrowed money from us with a total amount of more than 22 billion VND to also ‘follow the flow’ and refuse to pay us. Meanwhile, we have sold all our assets and have also paid the people 22 billion VND. Now we have nearly 9 billion VND left and are exhausted, not knowing who to rely on,” Mr. Tam’s family stated in the petition, adding that currently, Ms. Thuong and her husband are bringing money to Ho Chi Minh City to buy a house.

“We have repeatedly submitted petitions to initiate a criminal case and prosecute Ms. Thuong, but the police said that Ms. Thuong was not present at her residence, so there was no basis for investigation. Therefore, this time we continue to submit petitions to initiate a criminal case, hold Ms. Thuong accountable before the law, and return the money she borrowed to us so that we can pay back the people who lent us the money,” the complaint by Mr. Tam’s wife stated.

Meanwhile, the people do not agree with Mr. Tam's point of view. "Mr. Tam thinks that he and his wife are also victims of others, so he wants us, the people, to share the risk with him, and wait until we get the money that Mrs. Thuong borrowed from him, then we will use that money to pay us. But this is the money we sent to Mr. Tam and his wife to earn interest, not to invest shares in his business, so we have to share that risk. The two cases are not related to each other," said one of the people who had Mr. Tam and his wife borrow money from, adding that Mr. Tam and his wife have not yet sold all their assets to pay them back, specifically, there are still many plots of land under their names. Therefore, these people asked Mr. Tam to sell them to get money to pay off all the people who trusted and deposited their savings here.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Hoang Van Tuan - Secretary of the Cong Thanh Commune Party Committee said that this incident has been going on for many years. Recently, starting from December 17, 2023, people discovered that Mr. Tam and his wife still had many assets in their names, so they continued to come to the store to demand money. "The incident affected security and order, so the local government had to assign functional forces to be present regularly. As for the dispute between the parties, the commune has no authority," said Mr. Tuan.