Police investigate case of multi-billion VND informal lending scheme collapse in Vinh City.
(Baonghean.vn) - On January 5th, the Investigation Police Department of Nghe An province issued a decision to initiate a criminal case, indict the suspect, and execute an arrest warrant for temporary detention against Dao Thi Duyen (born in 1987), residing in Vinh city, for the crime of fraud and appropriation of property.
Previously, the Criminal Police Department (Nghe An Provincial Police) received numerous reports about the collapse of informal lending groups in Vinh City and surrounding districts, including information related to...mutual aid associationThe ward is headed by Ms. Vo Thi Thu Hien (born in 1986), residing in Hung Binh ward.
Under the direction of the Provincial Police leadership, the Criminal Investigation Department established a special task force to investigate the case. After verifying and gathering sufficient documents and evidence, the Criminal Investigation Department has initially clarified the matter.
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| The suspect, Dao Thi Duyen. Photo: Duc Vu |
Accordingly, Ms. Vo Thi Thu Hien used the Facebook application under the name "Vo Hien" to make friends and create groups.(also known as the total group)Many members joined the Messenger app with the purpose of playing "phường" (a type of online game). Before opening the "phường" groups, Vo Thi Thu Hien would post messages on Facebook in the main group to call for participants. Hien established many "phường" groups for people to play, with Hien acting as the group leader in each group.
Before participating in the lottery to receive the lottery money, players must deposit the lottery money by transferring it to the lottery organizer's bank account via Internet Banking. Because Vo Thi Thu Hien manages many lottery games and the amount of money transferred is large, players are required to take a screenshot of the successful transaction after transferring the money and send it to the lottery organizer's group so that the lottery organizer knows the money has been deposited.
From June 2nd, 2021 to September 24th, 2021, Dao Thi Duyen (born in 1987), residing in Hung Phuc Ward, Vinh City, participated in 23 lottery games organized by Vo Thi Thu Hien. Duyen used her bank account to deposit and receive money from the lottery. During the game, knowing that Hien managed many lottery games and that the amount of money flowing in and out of the account daily was difficult to control, Duyen conceived the idea of using fake bank transfer images on Internet Banking applications to embezzle money from other players.
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| The bank transfer message was forged by Dao Thi Duyen and sent to the ward head. Photo: Xuan Bac |
Acting on her plan, Dao Thi Duyen used the tactic of creating fake money transfer messages from Internet Banking to make recipients believe they were genuine images from the bank. After creating the fake images, Dao Thi Duyen sent them to neighborhood groups (bat phuong) to deceive people into thinking she had paid her neighborhood fees. When Ms. Vo Thi Thu Hien saw that Duyen had sent images of money transfers for neighborhood fees, she had no suspicions and thought Duyen had paid. When it was time to receive her fees, Ms. Vo Thi Thu Hien transferred the money to Dao Thi Duyen.
On September 24, 2021, Vo Thi Thu Hien noticed something unusual in Dao Thi Duyen's bank account and re-examined all the images of bank transfers she had made to the ward. She also went to the bank to check her account statement and found that Dao Thi Duyen's previous transfer images did not match the bank statement. Realizing that Dao Thi Duyen had used fake images to deceive her, Ms. Hien contacted Duyen to clarify the situation. Dao Thi Duyen admitted that the bank transfer images used to pay the ward fees were fake. Using this method, Dao Thi Duyen embezzled nearly 2.5 billion VND.
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| The Investigation Police Department of Nghe An province executed the arrest warrant and detained Dao Thi Duyen. Photo: Duc Vu |
In addition to the aforementioned gambling dens, Dao Thi Duyen also participated in 26 other gambling dens led by Vo Thi Thu Hien, all of which employed sophisticated tactics to defraud and embezzle money from the participants.
The above incident involves multiple victims, most notably the ward head Vo Thi Thu Hien, who was a victim of Dao Thi Duyen's fraudulent scheme to embezzle ward funds, causing the ward to collapse and negatively impacting public order and security in recent times.
Following the above incident, Lieutenant Colonel Tran Duc Than - Head of the Criminal Police Department (Nghe An Provincial Police) advised: While participation in informal lending schemes (like "phuong" or "hui") is regulated by law in Decree 19/ND-CP with fairly strict regulations, most of the practice among the people in recent times has been illegal. Currently, thanks to the application of the internet, establishing these schemes via social media is very simple and convenient. Players can quickly transfer money online, one person can establish multiple scheme leaders, even hundreds of schemes, and players can participate in corresponding schemes, thus easily leading to scheme collapse and other violations of the law. Therefore, people should not participate in illegal lending schemes, and should not be lured by promises of high profits to participate, to avoid losing money and violating the law, even criminal law. The unit is currently focusing its efforts to continue the investigation and expand the case.