Another online informal lending scheme worth tens of billions of dong collapses in Nghe An.

Shocking news from Vinh City.

On November 29th, many people went to the Nghe An Provincial Police to file complaints against Ms. Vo Thi Thu Hien (35 years old, Vinh City) for "abuse of trust and appropriation of property." Hien is the owner of a clothing store on Nguyen Van Cu Street and also the head of a very large-scale online informal lending scheme in Vinh City for many years. This woman was accused by her own members immediately after she declared bankruptcy.

According to our investigation, as of now, 105 people have confirmed that Hien owes them money from the informal lending scheme, totaling over 36 billion VND. Some owe tens of millions of VND, while the largest amount is nearly 4 billion VND. Meanwhile, the online lending scheme established by Hien has nearly 300 participants.

“That’s not the whole story. We’re sure there are many more victims,” said NTT (26 years old), one of the people who accused Ms. Hien of fraud and embezzlement. Ms. T., who sells clothes at the market, is owed over 90 million VND by Hien. “For a small business owner like me, this amount is huge. I can’t keep it a secret from my husband forever, but I’m afraid to tell him. I’ve lost sleep and appetite for days because I don’t know how to explain it to my family,” T. sobbed.

Two of the ward members shared their thoughts with a reporter from Nghe An Newspaper. Photo: PV

Ms. T. stated that she has been participating in a rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) run by Ms. Vo Thi Thu Hien since 2020. She has participated in many different ROSCA groups, but currently has one ROSCA group with a monthly payout of 10 million VND (13 slots) that she hasn't completed yet, and she hasn't received any payout from this group. The total amount Ms. T. has transferred to Ms. Hien for this ROSCA group is 90 million VND.

On November 20th, Ms. T. learned that the lottery organizer, Ms. Hien, had declared a loss, had not paid out for several days, and was late in paying out to many people. “Besides that, Ms. Hien didn’t inform the players in order to misappropriate the lottery money. We have also spoken with Ms. Hien many times about the loss of the lottery and confirmed that she was unable to pay,” Ms. T. recounted, adding that the lottery members later investigated and discovered that Ms. Hien had used fake Facebook accounts to participate in the lottery and colluded with a group of players to inflate the lottery prize money and misappropriate the funds.

According to our investigation, Ms. Hien created hundreds of lottery groups with varying amounts of money. Each group was assigned to a separate chat group on Facebook or Zalo, each with a different name. Some groups were daily, others monthly. Most members were businesspeople and traders in Vinh City and surrounding areas. All communication took place in these chat groups, so the members rarely knew each other in person. When the lottery draw was scheduled, the highest bidder would win. The winnings from the auction would then be divided equally among the members. “During the pandemic and social distancing, this type of scheme attracted many participants. Most were businesspeople, and there were two main reasons for this, despite the risks. Besides the high interest rates, it was also a way to quickly raise capital for business without having to go to a bank. For businesspeople like us, it was convenient,” said Ms. NTHM (27 years old, residing in Cua Lo town). Ms. M. is the person to whom Ms. Hien owes over 1 billion VND in neighborhood fees.

The trick isn't new.

After Ms. Hien declared bankruptcy and inability to repay her debts, the members discovered several suspicious aspects in the operation of this informal lending scheme. According to the members' complaints, several Facebook accounts participated in most of the shares managed by Ms. Hien. Notably, these Facebook accounts consistently bid high and, naturally, were among the first to win the shares. "We suspect these accounts are fake, created by Hien to bid in the scheme and embezzle funds. Even if they are real accounts, they belong to close associates colluding to steal," said one member who is owed over 200 million VND.

For several days now, after the announcement of the collapse of the informal lending scheme, members have been frequently going to Ms. Hien's house to question her. There, Ms. Hien stated that the collapse was due to familiar accounts owing her up to 20 billion VND. “According to our statistics, at least 105 people have reported being owed 36 billion VND by Ms. Hien. Ms. Hien says those people are 'running' her out of 20 billion VND, so where is the other 16 billion VND? We questioned her, but the scheme's leader couldn't explain. Not to mention those who absconded with the money like Ms. Hien – it's unclear whether they are real or just fictitious,” this member added.

A leader of an online informal lending group was recently prosecuted by the Vinh City Police. (Photo: PV)

In an attempt to clarify the allegations made by these individuals, the reporter repeatedly tried but was unable to contact the head of the informal lending group.

In fact, this is not a new trick. Just over a month ago, the Vinh City Police prosecuted and detained Tran Thi Phuong Thuy (37 years old, residing in Block 2, Truong Thi Ward) for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". Before her arrest, Thuy was also the owner of a large-scale online informal lending scheme.

During the course of her activities, Thuy was accused of using fake accounts she created to participate in auctions for lottery games. After several auctions, when Thuy's fake accounts won multiple times, she declared the lottery game bankrupt to seize the assets.

For example, on August 8th, Thuy opened a lottery with 12 slots. Participants joined via a Facebook chat group to exchange information and bid. Of the 12 slots, 2 were fake accounts created by Thuy. Thuy then conducted subsequent lottery auctions with a bid of 100 million VND per slot. Before the auction, each participant had to pay Thuy 200 million VND for the first two slots. Because Thuy was the lottery organizer, she received the first slot worth 1.1 billion VND without having to participate in the auction. Afterward, Thuy organized further auctions for participants to collect interest. The person with the highest interest rate received the lottery but had to pay interest to those who did not win.

Thúy then organized a group auction for the second spot in the Facebook chat group. In this auction, the fake account "Khánh Linh," created by Thúy, "won" with the highest interest rate of nearly 7.5 million VND, receiving 1.2 billion VND. "Khánh Linh" had to pay interest for the remaining 11 spots, at a rate of nearly 7.5 million VND per spot. Thus, in this second auction, "Khánh Linh" received 1,118,050,000 VND.

Three days later, on August 11th, Thuy organized a local auction for the third spot. Each participant had to pay Thuy 92,550,000 VND. The account "Khanh Linh," having already received the second spot, still had to pay the full 100,000,000 VND and did not receive any interest from subsequent auctions. In this auction, the virtual account "Moon Dinh," created by Thuy, won with the highest interest of 4,000,000 VND and received the third spot: 1,200,000,000 VND - (4,000,000 VND x 10) = 1,160,000,000 VND. On August 14th, 2021, Thuy organized another local auction for the fourth spot. Each participant had to pay Thuy 96,000,000 VND. Specifically, the accounts “Khánh Linh” and “Moon Định”, having already received previous ward-level funds, still had to pay the full amount of 100,000,000 VND and were not entitled to the interest from subsequent bids. In this round, the account “Thu Hương Nguyễn” bid with the highest interest of 4,750,000 VND and was awarded the 4th prize: 1,200,000,000 VND - (4,750,000 VND x 9) = 1,157,250,000 VND.

Using similar tactics, Thuy organized three more lottery auctions. On August 24th, she declared the lottery "collapsed" and did not hold any more auctions for participants who had not yet received their lottery winnings. In just this one lottery, Thuy embezzled over 6 billion VND from the lottery members. Meanwhile, the investigation revealed that from the end of 2018 until her arrest, Thuy participated in hundreds of lotterys using similar fraudulent methods...