Consequences after many billion-dollar savings and loan cases in Do Luong

(Baonghean.vn) - On December 17, Colonel Thai Khac Thong - Head of Do Luong District Police, said that the unit had responded in writing to the people's accusation that Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhung (37 years old, Dai Son commune) had borrowed money and refused to pay the hui money. "After investigating, the police determined that the case was a civil dispute, so they sent a document to the people asking them to submit a petition to the court for resolution," said Colonel Thong.

According to the complaint, more than a year ago, Ms. Nhung applied to join a hui group headed by Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong (49 years old, hamlet 10, Tru Son commune). This hui group consists of nearly 120 members from 4 communes: Tru Son, Dai Son, Hien Son and My Son. At first, Ms. Nhung handed over the group in full. However, last August, after taking more than 2 billion VND from the group, Ms. Nhung withdrew it.

The rotating savings and credit association headed by Ms. Hong has nearly 120 members from 4 communes participating.

“When it was the other households’ turn to pick up the fish, Ms. Nhung refused to pay the debt. Except for the amount previously paid to the ward periodically, the amount of money that Ms. Nhung had appropriated from the members was more than 1.2 billion VND,” the ward head said, adding that the members had held meetings many times and agreed to come to the house to demand the money, but Ms. Nhung deliberately refused to pay and even challenged them. Her family members even attacked and threatened them with sticks.

This is the third time in the past year that the hui led by Ms. Hong has gone bankrupt. The total amount of these three times is up to more than 7 billion VND. “There are also many other cases, but most of the debtors ask for a deferment. Seeing that they are in difficulty, have a trusting attitude, and are really bankrupt, the members of the hui do not demand urgent payment. As for cases where the hui takes money from the hui and lends it at high interest rates, builds houses, and buys land like Ms. Nhung, it is unacceptable,” said Mr. Nguyen Thuy Tam (65 years old, hamlet 10, Tru Son commune), and requested the authorities to suspend Ms. Nhung’s transactions to prevent her from dissipating her assets. More than 2 years ago, Mr. Tam’s family saved money to pay monthly to the hui. The amount he has paid so far is up to more than 200 million VND, but before it was his turn to pay, the hui went bankrupt.

Members gathered at the hui owner's house to sign the petition against Ms. Nhung.

Although she did not lose a large amount of money like Mr. Tam, more than 40 million VND for the family of Ms. Nguyen Thi Long (44 years old, Tru Son commune) is a fortune. The couple only has a few acres of rice fields, working hard all year round just to have enough to eat. Meanwhile, her son has epilepsy, and treatment requires a large sum of money. Not knowing where to get this money, Ms. Long decided to borrow 7 million VND each month to play the hui with the hope of receiving a large sum to take her son to the hospital.

However, after only half a year of joining, the incident happened. “I don’t know what to do now. Losing money has also caused discord between husband and wife. Not only in my family, now every couple here quarrels all day, just because of the hui,” Long sobbed.

Mr. Dang Van Toan, Chairman of Dai Son Commune People's Committee, said that Nhung not only participated in the ward headed by Ms. Hong but also paid into many other places. After taking money from the ward in one place, Nhung paid into another. In addition, Nhung also used this money to build a house and buy a car. "Nhung also operates like a bank. Whoever deposits money to earn interest, she also accepts it. Then she takes that money to lend to others at high interest rates. She is both a debtor and a creditor. However, when the debtors cannot pay, Nhung begins to fall into bankruptcy," said Mr. Toan.

Because the closing of the hui is not done through any management agency, the local government does not have exact statistics on the cases of hui failure. However, according to Mr. Toan's estimate, Dai Son commune alone has about 50 people similar to Nhung's case, with debts of up to hundreds of billions of dong.

"In Dai Son, there are not many cases yet to be exposed. Among them, civil servants also participated. Most of the cases of hui collapse do not have enough elements to prosecute, cannot prove fraud even though we really want to handle it," said Colonel Thai Khac Thong, adding that the local government needs to actively propagate so that people do not participate in playing the ward as well as lending money for interest because the risk is very high./.

Tien Hung