Tired of demanding money that "evaporated" at Eximbank

Eximbank has had a series of incidents where employees embezzled customers' money. Photo: Ngoc Thang

6 customers lost more than 50 billion VND

According to the conclusion of the police investigation agency (August 2017), from 2012 to August 2016, Nguyen Thi Lam (cashier of Eximbank Do Luong Transaction Office, Nghe An) had deceived customers into signing payment orders, signed fake payment authorizations, as well as some documents in which Lam forged customer signatures, deceived bank employees to withdraw from the system more than 50 billion VND of the savings deposits of 6 customers at Eximbank. Lam also received 570 million VND from a customer to open a savings book but then appropriated it. It is worth mentioning that although she had terminated her labor contract with Eximbank since April 7, 2016, Lam was still able to create procedural documents to appropriate customers' savings deposits at Eximbank up to more than 34.2 billion VND.

On September 21, 2016, Lam confessed to the Nghe An Police Investigation Agency. Lam said he used the embezzled money to pay for other customers' savings accounts at the bank, to buy land, invest, lend at high interest rates, build houses, etc.

The case was initiated in 2016, and in August 2017, the police investigation agency concluded. Accordingly, the controller, teller, cashier of the Eximbank Do Luong Transaction Office and the staff of the Eximbank Vinh branch customer transaction office intentionally violated the regulations on withdrawal and deposit of the State Bank and Eximbank, so Lam withdrew savings in the Eximbank system of 6 customers (the savings books had not been closed). The Nghe An Police Investigation Agency requested Eximbank to resolve the request of the 6 customers to pay the principal and interest, forcing Ms. Lam to compensate the entire amount of money she had appropriated to Eximbank. However, up to now, the 6 customers are still waiting in vain.

Previously, the loss of 245 billion VND in savings deposits at Eximbank related to Ms. Chu Thi Binh was widely reported and shocked the public. This incident was discovered 1 year ago. In early February, the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency (C44) issued an official dispatch identifying Eximbank as the victim in the criminal case of "fraudulent appropriation of property", Le Nguyen Hung (former Deputy Director of Eximbank Ho Chi Minh City branch) created fake documents related to Ms. Binh's savings accounts to appropriate more than 245 billion VND from Eximbank.

Eximbank does not voluntarily pay

Legally, Eximbank should have paid the customers after the conclusion of the investigation agency as mentioned above. However, in both cases, Eximbank wanted the customers to wait for the court's decision. This is the reason why the case is prolonged, causing frustration for depositors.

Lawyer Nguyen Huu Liem, Tuoi Tre Law Office (representing the claim for the rights of 2 customers with savings deposits at Eximbank of more than 40 billion VND), said: The customers cannot wait any longer, they demand that Eximbank pay immediately before the trial because the indictment and conclusion of the police investigation agency are very clear about Eximbank's responsibility to pay.

“In the working session earlier this week, Eximbank continued to negotiate and waited for the court’s verdict,” said lawyer Liem, adding that he had asked Eximbank to clearly answer which court they were waiting for the verdict from. Because according to the procedural process, it will go through the first instance, appeal, review, and retrial stages, so we don’t know when customers will get their money back. “We are waiting for an official response from Eximbank this week before taking the next steps,” said Mr. Liem.

Representing Ms. Chu Thi Binh, lawyer Dinh Anh Tuyet (IDVN Law Firm) also said: “The incident was discovered from March 2017 until now, Eximbank’s representative requested Ms. Binh to continue pursuing litigation procedures in court to get her deposit back. That is, when the competent authority forces Eximbank to fulfill its obligations, instead of voluntarily performing them.”

Not only causing frustration for those who lost money, Eximbank's solution is making many depositors confused.