Bank officials used people's red books to make fake documents to lend money.
The man in Phu Xuyen, Hanoi, had no idea that his house's red book had been used by a bank officer to create fake documents for someone else to borrow money.
The Hanoi People's Court has just sentenced Nguyen Thi Tra Ly (born 1965, former Agribank officer) to 11 years in prison and Le Van Manh (born 1973, both in Phu Xuyen) to 7 years in prison for fraud and property appropriation.
Previously, in July 2018, Mr. Le Van M. (born 1963, in Phu Xuyen) accused his cousin, defendant Manh, of using his family's red book to mortgage the bank.
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| Bank staff used people's red books to make fake documents to borrow money. |
The investigation determined that in January 2007, due to the need to borrow capital for business, Manh met Mr. M. and borrowed his family's red book, saying it was to use as collateral to borrow money from others, without mortgage to borrow capital from credit institutions. Mr. M. agreed and gave Manh the red book.
With the red book in hand, Manh went to Agribank Phu Minh branch to meet Ms. Ly to help with the loan procedures of 90 million VND.
Ms. Ly received the information and the red book in Mr. M's name, then prepared a loan application, a business production plan, a request for registration of guarantee using land use rights and assets attached to land... according to the bank's prescribed form and then gave it to Manh to sign.
Manh forged Mr. M's signature (on the guarantor side in the application for registration of guarantee and the guarantee contract using land use rights and assets attached to land) and then gave it to his wife to sign on the guaranteed side and handed it back to Ms. Ly.
Ms. Ly did not meet Mr. M. to check whether he agreed to use her red book as a loan guarantee for Manh, nor did she conduct an appraisal of the mortgaged property, which was real estate, to request confirmation of Manh's loan application.
Mrs. Ly even asked someone else to forge the signature of Mr. M's wife at the guarantor's side and then met with the commune chairman to ask for confirmation.
After completing the fake documents, Ms. Ly submitted them to her superiors for approval of the loan application and signed the credit contract.
After receiving the disbursement of 90 million VND, Manh continued to borrow from the bank many times. Sometimes 100 million VND, sometimes 500 million VND. Manh used the money from the next loan to pay off the principal and interest of the previous loan.
According to the accusation, all three loans above, although fraudulent in terms of procedures, have been paid off so did not cause damage to the bank.
Bank was cheated of money
After the above successful attempts, in September 2009, Ms. Ly and Manh continued to prepare documents for Manh to borrow 500 million VND from Phu Minh Transaction Office, under Agribank Phu Xuyen branch.
Defendant Ly created a fraudulent guarantee contract and mortgage contract. Knowing that the loan was not secured as required, the bank staff still completed the documents with collateral in form as a basis for granting credit to Le Van Manh for 500 million VND according to the credit contract dated September 15, 2009.
This time, when the deadline came, Manh did not fulfill his debt repayment obligation but instead appropriated the entire amount of money from Agribank Phu Xuyen, Phu Minh branch.
On April 18, 2019, the bank sent a document requesting Manh to pay more than VND 1.4 billion, including principal and interest. The bank also requested the investigation agency to clarify the violations of Manh and related individuals.
According to the testimony of Mr. M. and his wife, neither of them signed any document agreeing to let Manh mortgage the red book in his name to borrow money from the bank.
