Hundreds of billions of dong in black credit debt shocks Nghe An countryside

However, a few days ago, the people who raised the capital suddenly declared bankruptcy, causing hundreds of people who had deposited money to be in trouble.

The countryside is deserted.

On the evening of October 18, hundreds of people gathered in front of the house of Mrs. Bui Thi Nhung (56 years old, Cong Hoa village, Quynh Long commune) to pressure and demand money. This woman is one of the key people ofblack credit line, raised capital from hundreds of people but suddenly declared bankruptcy.

To get the money, people brought loudspeakers to the front gate, played music, and shouted loudly... However, the iron gate of this woman's house remained tightly closed.

Helpless, people continued to flock to the house of another suspect, Tran Thi Hoan (57 years old, Minh Thanh hamlet, Quynh Long commune, Quynh Luu). The local government had to dispatch functional forces to ensure security and order, to avoid clashes.

According to the reporter's investigation, this capital mobilization line was led by a group of relatives. The amount of money mobilized from the people was up to hundreds of billions of dong.

Mr. Bui Ham (61 years old, Quynh Long commune) said that in recent days, he and his wife have lost sleep and appetite because of regret for losing money. Not only did Mr. Ham pour all his assets into the black credit line, he also borrowed money from outside to deposit here to enjoy the interest rate difference.

Mr. Ham said that he and his wife used to do business in the South. "A few years ago, the land there increased, so I sold everything and earned a decent amount of money, then moved back to my hometown to live," Mr. Ham said. He added that when he returned to his hometown, he saw many people depositing money to get interest, so he also deposited. In early 2023, he initially deposited 500 million VND to Ms. Tran Thi Hoan, with an interest rate of 1.5%/month. Seeing that this person paid interest regularly, he and his wife trusted him and gradually deposited larger amounts. In addition to Ms. Hoan, Mr. Ham also deposited money to Ms. Bui Thi Nhung and Tran Thi Vin (47 years old, Minh Thanh village, Quynh Long commune), with similar interest rates. To date, the amount of money that Mr. Ham's family deposited in these three sources is up to more than 9 billion VND. With this amount of money, Mr. Ham would previously receive about 135 million VND in interest each month.

“Actually, the interest rate is really high, higher than depositing in the bank. It is also very convenient to withdraw and deposit, no complicated procedures are required, so it is also attractive. In addition, these people also create a perfect cover for us to trust. They live a very successful life, often give charity porridge everywhere, and are constantly honored. I thought they needed capital to invest in real estate, but it turned out to be a scam,” Mr. Ham said in a resentful voice.

A few days ago, the villagers started to gossip about the black credit line going bankrupt, and Mr. Ham just heard the news. When he went to find the three people he had sent money to, he received the answer that they “could no longer pay”. Since then, Mr. Ham has been “sitting on fire”, because in that 9 billion VND, there was also money from his wife and children and money he borrowed. “The car I just bought cost more than 600 million VND, but yesterday I had to accept selling it for 480 million VND to pay them back. All my capital was invested in it”, Mr. Ham said.

Hundreds of victims

Not only receiving money from people considered well-off like Mr. Ham's family, this black credit line also targets households in difficult circumstances. Mrs. Bui Thi Tron (74 years old) is one of them. Her husband passed away not long ago, Mrs. Tron had to raise her mentally ill son alone. A few years ago, Mrs. Tron had to sell her land to pay off her debt. After paying off the debt, she had 150 million VND left, like other neighbors, she brought all the money to send to Mrs. Tran Thi Hoan to get interest, to take care of the life of the mother and son every month.

“Every month, I receive 2.1 million VND in interest to buy rice and food for my two children. Now I am no longer of working age, and there is no support, so I only rely on that money. I never expected to end up like this,” Ms. Tron said, adding that when the network declared bankruptcy, she also went to her house crying, only asking Ms. Hoan, a long-time neighbor, to take pity on her and write a commitment to pay back the money, but was also refused.

As for Mrs. Nguyen Thi Moi (70 years old, Quynh Thuan commune), she said that her family works in the salt industry, after many years of saving 90 million VND, they also deposited it into this black credit. In addition, her daughter and her husband also collected more than 1 billion VND, while waiting to build a house, they also deposited it here to earn some interest. Since hearing the news that the black credit line was broken, she has no longer been interested in the salt fields, all day long hanging around in front of the borrower's house but has not been able to talk to her.

Another victim, Mr. Tran Van Dung (56 years old), said that this black credit line has signs of being linked together to commit fraud. “The people who mobilize capital from the people are all sisters or cousins. Before declaring bankruptcy, they frantically called and went to many people's houses to mobilize. They accepted any amount of money. They even did not spare women who worked as clam and mussel rakers, earning tens of thousands of dong a day. It was really cruel,” Mr. Dung said indignantly.

According to the reporter’s investigation, not only in Quynh Long commune, other sisters of Mrs. Tran Thi Hoan who got married and moved to communes such as Quynh Thach, Son Hai, Quynh Hong… also raised a large amount of money from people in these localities. Then at the same time, they also declared bankruptcy, no longer able to pay.

Talking to Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Mrs. Tran Thi Vin - one of the capital mobilization contacts said that her family used to work at sea. However, in recent years, fishing has become increasingly difficult, so the couple decided to sell the fishing boat and switch to banking. Because the job often requires large sums of money, she started receiving deposits from people and then paying them interest at an interest rate of 1.5% to 2%/month. Mrs. Vin and Mrs. Tran Thi Hoan are her sister's and her brother's children.

“Not long ago, Mrs. Tran Thi Hoan’s eldest sister, Ms. Tran Thi Hoai (who married and moved to Quynh Thach commune), contacted me and told me that if I had money, I could send it to her and enjoy a 3% interest rate per month. Because we are cousins, I trusted her and received money from villagers and sent it to her to enjoy the interest rate difference,” Mrs. Vin said, adding that recently, another cousin in the family, Bui Quang D. (living in Ho Chi Minh City), also contacted her to raise capital for “bank maturity services”. D.’s father is the younger brother of Mrs. Vin’s mother and Mrs. Hoan’s mother, Mrs. Hoai…

“Actually, I am also a victim. Around the beginning of October, Mr. D. called me and said he needed to raise a large amount of money, so I deposited 14 billion VND there. D. promised to transfer it all to me by October 16 at the latest, but on October 15, the people there discovered that he and his wife had died in the cafe. I rushed there and found out that Mr. D. was bankrupt,” Ms. Vin said, adding that she also had about 13 billion VND deposited with Ms. Tran Thi Hoai (Quynh Thach commune), which she had not yet recovered.

“Including the money I sent to Mr. D. and Ms. Hoai, it was 27 billion VND. All of that money was raised from the villagers. Now, even if I sell all my assets, it still won’t be enough to pay the villagers. Ms. Hoai said she was in a worse situation than me, having raised more than 100 billion VND to send to Mr. D., so I still can’t get the money back from her,” Ms. Vin added.

Mr. Tran Van Nguyen - Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Long commune said that the information about the black credit line going bankrupt has shocked the whole commune in recent days.

“They mobilized capital in a very secretive way, so it was very difficult for the commune to grasp. Through initial information, at least hundreds of households in the commune deposited money into this black credit line, with an estimated amount of hundreds of billions of dong. Not to mention, there are many other victims in other communes in Quynh Luu district. In Quynh Long commune, there are at least 4 sources of money mobilization, these people have long had a successful cover,” Mr. Nguyen said, adding that in recent days, local authorities have also had a hard time ensuring security and order when people flocked to the homes of the sources in this black credit line.

Tien Hung