Former debt collector of F88 Company sentenced
When borrowers do not pay their debts, debt collectors hired by a company send threatening messages, curse, and insult the borrowers and their relatives and friends.
On July 31, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced defendant Nguyen Le Nghia Thong (24 years old, residing in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City) to 2 years and 6 months in prison; Tran Quoc Lam (28 years old, residing in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) to 4 years and 6 months in prison; Nguyen Hong Nguyen (28 years old, from Binh Dinh) to 1 year and 6 months in prison.
As for Tran Ngoc Thao (49 years old, from Tay Ninh), he was sentenced to 1 year, 4 months and 21 days in prison. Because the prison term was equal to the time spent in detention, defendant Thao was released immediately in court.
The remaining 3 defendants in the case also received sentences from 2 years and 6 months to 3 years and 6 months in prison for the crime of "Extortion of property".
According to the prosecution, on September 21, 2022, Ms. Le Thi Hong T. went to the transaction point of F88 Company (in Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) to complete the mortgage procedure for the motorbike registration with personal photos, providing the phone numbers of friends and relatives to borrow 22.7 million VND. However, Ms. T. was only able to pay the interest and principal for 3 months before being unable to pay.
As a debt collector for F88 Trading Joint Stock Company (abbreviated as F88 Company), Nguyen Le Nghia Thong was provided with a list of overdue customers by the team leader Duong Giap Sam (unknown background), and asked Thong to search for information to collect the debt. In the customer list was Ms. Le Thi Hong T.
After finding information about Ms. T., Thong went to her house many times and called her to demand that she pay the debt. However, Ms. T. was unable to pay, so Thong sent messages cursing her and threatening to post information about Ms. T.'s fraud on social media. Seeing that Ms. T. still refused to pay, Thong sent messages threatening her brother.
He also mortgaged his car registration to F88 Company to borrow more than 80 million VND, but after 3 months, Mr. Nguyen Trong N. was no longer able to pay. To collect the debt, Thong texted Mr. N.'s relatives and friends, cursing and threatening.
Similar to the two victims T. and N., in April 2022, Ms. Ngo Thi Kim X. went to the transaction office of F88 Company branch on Binh Long Street (Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City) to mortgage her motorbike registration and borrow 30 million VND. After paying the principal and interest for 2 months, Ms. X. was no longer able to pay.
Assigned by a manager named Tram (unknown background), Nguyen Hong Nguyen (a debt collection officer for F88 Company) continuously texted Ms. X. and her relatives and friends to threaten and insult her.
Outraged by the threatening behavior of F88 Company employees, the above people went to Ho Chi Minh City Police to report.
In addition to collecting debts for the company, Tran Quoc Lam, Nguyen Van Ngoc, Ngo Van Nghia, and Tu Hai Nguyen (employees of F88 Company) also collected debts for their colleague Tran Ngoc Thao.
According to the case, in July 2021, Thao and Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu T. pooled money together to play online gambling games. Seeing that playing games would bring in money, Thao opened a credit card at Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) with a limit of 200 million. Then, Thao withdrew 180 million VND from the card and transferred it to Ms. T. to deposit into the game account.
In November 2021, Ms. T. announced that the network system was under maintenance and she could not log in, so she could not withdraw money. Thao asked Ms. T. to return the amount of 180 million VND to pay off the bank, but Ms. T. did not have the money to pay. In June 2022, Ms. T. wrote a debt acknowledgement for more than 234 million VND to Thao.
After calling many times to collect the debt but Ms. T. did not pay, Thao asked Lam, Ngoc, Nghia, and Nguyen to help her collect the debt and promised to pay 50% of the collected amount.
After that, Lam and his accomplices took turns going to Ms. T's house and texting her to demand that she pay Thao's debt. Because Ms. T did not pay, Lam went to her daughter's school to follow her, took pictures of the child, and sent them to Ms. T with the message "What about the money? Will you just keep quiet?" to intimidate her.
Despite transferring 70 million VND to Thao and Lam many times, Ms. T. was still continuously threatened. In early March 2023, Ms. T. wrote a complaint to the police against this group.
