Woman defrauded 433 billion VND from three banks

Thanh, a freelance worker residing in Hai Ba Trung district, has just been prosecuted by the Hanoi People's Procuracy for the crime ofFraudulent appropriation of propertyaccording to clause 4, article 174 of the Penal Code.

24 of Thanh's accomplices were prosecuted for the crimesFraudulent appropriation of property, Lack of responsibility causing serious consequences, Violation of regulations on banking activities and other activities related to banking,Loan sharkingin civil transactionsunder Articles 174, 206, 360 and 201. Of these, 17 were former officers at banks.

Thanh and his accomplices were accused of using various tricks to commit 27 frauds, appropriating more than VND433 billion from National Citizen Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NCB), Viet A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VAB), Vietnam Public Commercial Joint Stock Bank (PVcomBank) and many individuals.

According to the indictment, Thanh was a self-employed businessman who suffered losses and owed about 80 billion VND, so from 2016 to 2018, he borrowed money at high interest rates from many people. Thanh often borrowed from later people and paid back the previous people.

At first, Thanh gained the trust of lenders and bank officers by paying off his debts on time. Thanh then took on his own name or asked someone else to stand in his name on the loan.Credit Agreementto borrow large sums of money from banks. Since then, NCB and VAB banks have considered Thanh as a "VIP customer".

From June 2018 to November 2018, Thanh was unable to pay her debts. She and her accomplices repeatedly used fraudulent tricks to appropriate money from NCB, PVB, VAT banks and other individuals.

Knowing that Mr. Dang Nghia Toan, residing in Hoan Kiem district, had money, Thanh proposed to borrow money in the form of Mr. Toan and his wife depositing money in NCB or PVB bank and then giving Thanh the savings book to manage. Thanh would immediately pay Mr. Toan and his wife an additional interest of 4.2% per month (many times higher than the bank interest rate) and when the due date came, he would return the savings book to Mr. Toan so that he could go to the bank to withdraw the principal and the bank interest that Thanh would receive.

After having the savings book, Thanh used it as collateral to borrow money from NCB and PVB banks. At the same time, Thanh asked Nguyen Thanh Tung, Director of Jeongho Landmark Company, to make a decision appointing Mr. Toan and his wife as company directors to include in the loan application.

A transaction office at PVcomBank. Photo:PVcomBank.

The indictment determined that from June 2018 to November 2018, Thanh and Tung used the above tricks to defraud NCB, PVB and VAB banks.

At National Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NCB)From June 2018 to August 2018, Thanh borrowed 50 billion VND from Mr. Dang Nghia Toan. However, Thanh asked Mr. Toan to deposit the savings into 5 books at NCB and then give the savings books to Thanh to keep.

Thanh and Nguyen Thanh Tung used the legal entity of Jeongho Landmark Company to create fake documents.Sales contract, debt reconciliation minutesEurocell Company(ceased operations since 2017) andHoang Nguyen Trading Company Limited.Thanh then took advantage of the trust and irresponsibility of NCB bank employees in credit granting and disbursement activities, and together with Tung, forged the signatures of Mr. Toan and his wife on the documents. From there, Thanh received three disbursements from NCB bank with the amount of 47.5 billion VND.

At PVcomBank,In October 2018, Thanh borrowed 52 billion VND from Mr. Toan by asking Mr. Toan to deposit savings in the bank, Thanh kept the savings book. Thanh then also worked with Tung to create fake documents, forged signatures, and fingerprints of Mr. Toan and his wife to appropriate 49.4 billion VND from PVB.

At VietABank,Thanh looked for people with money to borrow at high interest rates or invite them to cooperate in business. Because he had no collateral to offer to give money directly, Thanh suggested that they deposit their savings in VAB bank. From there, Thanh found a way to borrow or withdraw money from the bank to use.

To carry out this plan, Thanh approached Nguyen Thi Thu Huong (head of corporate customer relations at Dong Do transaction office - VAB Bank). Thanh proposed to co-own a large amount of savings and VAB would then mortgage that savings book to borrow money from the bank. With this trick, Thanh committed 21 frauds, appropriating VND273.9 billion from VAB and VND63 billion from four other individuals.

Defendant Nguyen Thanh Tung, Director of Jeongho Lanmark Company, was accused of using Tung's company's legal entity with Thanh to create fake contracts for the purchase and sale of goods, debt reconciliation records... to embezzle 47.5 billion VND from NCB and 49.4 billion VND from PVB. Tung also forged Mr. Toan's signature to help Thanh embezzle 174.5 billion VND from VAB bank.

Defendant Nguyen Thi Thu Huong was accused of knowing that Thanh had forged the signatures of co-owners of savings books to borrow money from VAB, but concealed it, and created a request to freeze collateral assets and gave it to customers to make them believe that their money had been frozen by the bank. Therefore, when the savings books were mortgaged or the money in the books was withdrawn, the customers did not know.

The indictment determined that Huong helped Thanh carry out 21 fraud cases, appropriating 273.9 billion VND from VAB bank.